Remember the 13.2-megapixels on the Panasonic Lumix Phone rumored to arrive to Japan in February 2011? Well, Panasonic made its plans to re-enter the smartphone world public today.

According to the company, smartphone sales will begin on the Japanese market early 2011 while overseas customers will have to wait until 2012. The new smartphones will run Google’s Android operating system and will directly compete with Apple’s iPhone — the handset dominating the market in Japan. Osamu Waki, head of the company’s mobile communications said they’ve “misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market” and, while admitting they’re a bit late to the show, they want to catch up quickly with “the rapid shift to Android”. How quickly? Panasonic aims to sell 15 million units worldwide in 2015 with Japanese market forecasted sales of 5.4-5.5 million units in the year to March — in circumstances in which Sharp declared earlier this week that it is aiming for a 30% domestic market share in the next two to three years.

Source: Reuters