Hasta La Gadget!

Back in 2012, Fujitsu revealed a device in Japan called the Raku Raku, which was essentially a smartphone targeted towards the elderly. Given that most phones these days seem to focus more on crisp displays and sharp images, we guess in the process we forget that there are older folks who use smartphones too whose eyesight might not be what it used to be. Fujitsu attempted to expand outside of Japan with the Raku Raku smartphone and launched in France and apparently the device was quite a hit amongst the senior crowd of French carrier, Orange, to the point where Fujitsu has recently announced their plans to expand the availability of the Raku Raku smartphone to more parts of Europe.

According to Fujitsu’s chief executive, Masami Yamamoto, there were additional carriers in Europe who had approached the company after learning about the phone’s success on Orange. “We started off by offering it on a limited basis to French customers (in June), but orders have been so strong we have started to expand nationwide. The next step would be across Europe and of course we want to sell it worldwide.” 

While Fujitsu making a loss as far as their mobile phones are concerned, the company has its feet planted and are looking more at the long-term, where Yamamoto thinks that there is a chance that companies such as Apple and Samsung could become irrelevant, and where Fujitsu would then be able to take over.

Fujitsu To Expand Raku Raku’s Availability n Europe original content from Ubergizmo.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo isn’t content waiting for Google Now to become commonplace before it gives customers a taste of predictive search. The carrier is near launching a trial for Tap-de-Concier, an Android-based service that will pop up maps, media, games and more depending on both the user’s own habits, as well as usage and trends from DoCoMo’s other portals. The result is a service that theoretically knows what you want, when you want it: Tap-de-Concier can tell that you’re looking for train schedules before work on a Monday morning, and restaurants on Friday night. We imagine that some will like the alternative just because it won’t be confined to Jelly Bean — any DoCoMo-offered phone or tablet with at least Android 2.3 can run the service, including Raku-Raku phones. Locals will have between March 26th and September 30th to decide whether or not Tap-de-Concier is more helpful than its Google parallel.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Comments

Via: The Next Web

Source: NTT DoCoMo