Call it typical herd behavior: yesterday, we reported that both Sharp and Panasonic are preparing Android-based smartphones (to be sold in Japan and worldwide), and today we see another major Japanese cell phone maker jumping on the Android bandwagon.
NEC Casio Mobile Communications announced they will start offering its own Android handsets in Japan next year and in international markets sometime after that. To recap, NEC Casio Mobile is the name of a company that was created through a merger of the cell phone businesses of NEC, Casio and Hitachi in 2009.
It took the company a long time to come through with their internationalization strategy, following announcements it made in December 2009 and in March 2010. But NEC Casio Mobile CEO Yamasaki today said his company wants to sell 12 million handsets worldwide by 2012, with smartphones accounting for about 50% of that number.
He also announced that by that time, he sees his company selling 40% of the 12 million handsets in markets outside Japan.
The Japanese handset makers are nuts about Android, and you can expect other big cell phone makers to follow NEC Casio, Sharp, and Panasonic soon.
Via Keitai Watch [JP]
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