Panasonic suspends smartphone production

Panasonic Corp. said Thursday it has suspended development and production of smartphones for consumers in Japan to focus its resources on the corporate customer market where growth is expected.

NTT Docomo Inc., which has effectively been the sole marketing channel for Panasonic's smartphones, had decided to put priority on selling handsets supplied by Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea. The carrier also started selling Apple Inc.'s iPhones last week.

Panasonic halted smartphone production at its Malaysian plant in August, but will continue to develop and manufacture smartphones for corporate customers in Japan and overseas, Panasonic said.

Panasonic will also continue to produce and sell conventional mobile phones to individual customers, it said.