Fujitsu To Bring Its Senior Citizen-Optimized Raku Raku Smartphone To The US, Europe

Smartphones are a lot of things — convenient, powerful, and feature-rich. They're also exceedingly complicated to many older users who are accustomed to 12-button panels and curly phone cords. This past summer, Fujitsu revealed that its Raku Raku smartphone, a handset designed specifically for senior citizens, would be arriving in Japan via NTT Docomo. Now the company, facing a saturated market in Japan, is branching out and will launch the handset in the United States and Europe.

This information comes from Fujitsu's president himself, who told the newspaper Asahi, "As the Japanese market has already hit a peak, we have to sell devices overseas to increase our sales numbers." The Raku Raku will be modified for its respective overseas markets, although no information on what changes will be in place for the US and European versions have been offered.

The Japanese version of the phone offers many features designed specifically for easy-to-comprehend navigation and use. For example, the large icons on the handset's display change colors when tapped to let the user know that it was pressed to make up for the lack of a physical button. The user interface is designed to offer simple menus and easily accessible features.

The handset has a 4-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800, an 8.1-megapixel rear camera and 3.2-megapixel front camera, and is presently being sold in Pink, Navy, and Gold colors. There are no set dates for when the handset will hit the international markets, nor what carriers will offer it and the expected price range.

[via Asahi]