Panasonic smartphones are now made in Malaysia. The Managing Director of Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Jeff Lee Wee Leong confirmed with Malaysian Wireless today that the Panasonic factory based in Malaysia is currently producing smartphones for the European market.
Just last week, Panasonic launch its smartphone in the UK for £364.99(est RM1.8k). The Panasonic Eluga comes with IP57 certification, with a sealed body that can survive dust, as well as a 30-minute dip in 1 meter of water. The Eluga is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor and runs Android 2.3. Other features include a 4.3-inch, 540 x 960-resolution OLED screen, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and an 8MP rear camera.
In April, it was reported that Panasonic plans to move its mobile phone production unit to Malaysia, Beijing and some will be outsourced to overseas manufacturers.
According to Jeff, the production factory is based in Johor Bahru but he declined to comment when asked about total investment. As for the Panasonic smartphone availability in Malaysia, Jeff said “Possibly, we will bring in the phone to Malaysia next year”.
Panasonic sold around 5 million handsets in the just-ended fiscal term, making it the No. 3 domestic manufacturer in Japan behind Sharp Corp and Fujitsu Ltd. The company hopes to triple sales to 15 million units by 2016.
