Fujitsu isn't a name we often see on phones here in the U.S., but it looks like one of the company's smartphones will soon be making its way onto U.S. shelves. Speaking to The Asahi Shimbun, Fujitsu president Masami Yamamoto revealed that his firm will be bringing its Raku-Raku Smartphone in both the U.S. and Europe. The Raku-Raku Smartphone is a device that's aimed at seniors and is billed as an easy-to-use smartphone. It features large, colorful buttons on its touchscreen that will change color once touched to shown that they've been selected, then offer a vibration confirmation once the button continues to be pressed. Also included are simple menus and a UI to help users access certain features quickly.
There's no word on exactly when the Raku-Raku Smartphone will hit the U.S. or how much it'll cost when it does. The device launched in Japan back in August with a 4-inch 800x480 display, 1.4GHz Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 processor and a modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
While there are already some senior-focused handsets available, like the Jitterbug series, the selection of those devices is still somewhat slim. Apparently Fujitsu thinks that it's time to change that. The Raku-Raku series (which includes more basic flip phones) has already racked up 20 million sales, so it'll be interesting to see both how the Raku-Raku Smartphone is offered here in the U.S. and how well it sells. Unfortunately for folks hoping that the impending arrival of the Raku-Raku Smartphone could also mean that Fujitsu's high-end Arrows devices are headed stateside, the company has said that it has no plans to bring those products overseas.
