Japanese Phone Makers Look to Ride Android’s Surge

By HIROKO TABUCHI
NYT

TOKYO — Japanese mobile phones are a gadget lover’s dream. They double as credit cards. They can display digital TV broadcasts. Some are even fitted with solar cells.

And yet, for all their innovations, Japanese-made handsets have had little impact overseas. They account for just a sliver of a global mobile phone market dominated by the likes of Apple, Research in Motion and Samsung.

But now the Japanese phone industry hopes to go global — by adopting Google’s red-hot Android mobile operating system.

“We have the technology to compete in the United States,” said Naoki Shiraishi, who led software development for a new line of Android smartphones from Sharp, the largest Japanese cellphone maker. “It’s finally time for Sharp phones to go play in the major leagues.”

(More here.)