JAPANESE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS GIANT Panasonic announced a revenue decline of 14 per cent in its fiscal 2012 third quarter, blaming the economic situation and the flooding in Thailand.
Panasonic’s third quarter financial figures made for painful reading, with the firm announcing revenue of £16.2bn, a 14 per cent decline from the same quarter a year previously. That led to Panasonic suffering an operating loss of £1.6bn.
Panasonic joined other electronics firms by blaming its recent woes on the devastating floods in Thailand. Once again weaker than expected demand for flat-panel televisions was cited, though the firm said that its PC business held up well.
Panasonic is not expecting things to get better soon, with the firm announcing a downward revision of its revenue estimate for its full year 2012 to eight trillion Yen, blaming “significant sales declines in mainly digital products”. With production starting to resume in Thailand it couldn’t lay all of the blame on its fragile supply chain, instead blaming the European economic crisis.
The news of Panasonic’s downward revision of forecasts was greeted in such a negative manner that the company was forced to quickly release a statement in which it clarified that its eight trillion Yen figure was simply a forecast and not an official announcement. Panasonic, like Sony, is seen as a symbol of wider market trends in Japan, and with both companies posting what can only be described as poor financial results and gloomy forecasts, the future doesn’t look particularly good for the Japanese consumer electronics industry. µ
JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRM Panasonic has announced its Toughpad FZ-A1, a rugged 10.1in Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet.
The firm is describing the device as a tablet version of its Toughbook laptops. The Toughpad is due to tip up in spring of 2012 starting at €1,020 (£874) for the WiFi only model.
Hiroaki Sakamoto, MD at Panasonic said, “Now users in business and industry can also benefit from the ease of use and portability of tablet computing. Toughpad takes all the Toughbook experience of rugged computing we have gained since 1996 and focuses it into tablets designed for the workplace.”
The Toughpad FZ-A1 will be a 10.1in tablet equipped with a Marvell 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Panasonic said it will make a 7in version of the Toughpad in the second half of 2012.
It is designed with ruggedness in mind for mobile workers in sectors such as construction, aviation, public safety and similar applications. To cater for these environments the Toughpad will have a drop rating of 120cm and be able to cope with extreme temperatures.
Other features include an anti-glare coating on the screen, a 10-hour replaceable battery, a 5MP rear camera and a dedicated security processor.
A 3G version of the Toughpad will be available for €1,199 (£1,027). µ
JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRM Panasonic is running a promotion that will give customers the chance to be the first to own the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu-ray when it comes out on 12 September.
UK users who buy selected Panasonic products such as Blu-ray players, Blu-ray home theatre systems or a Blu-ray recorders between 12 August and 31 December 2011 (while stocks last) will have the original saga shipped out to them, four days before it goes on sale in the Galactic Empire (US).
Thankfully, Panasonic will be offering only the original trilogy, which is in many peoples’ eyes the only trilogy. The manufacturer is keen not to subject its customers to the dreadful prequels that dumped on many a fond childhood memory from a great height.
In fact, The INQUIRER has been informed that some movie goers have still not recovered from seeing The Phantom Menace, which managed to be even worse than the Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter films.
The INQUIRER attended the world exclusive premiere of the Star Wars Blu-ray edition at The O2 today, and we caught up with the ever excitable C-3P0, Boba Fett and the top dogs from ILM, who were responsible for many of the excellent visuals and were probably forced to create the abomination that is Jar Jar Binks.
The INQUIRER will be posting details about what to expect from the Blu-ray edition of the Star Wars trilogy together with pictures from the Galactic extravaganza soon. µ
