Earlier this year we reported that Fujitsu had a smartphone designed for the elderly called the Raku Raku. The device was initially limited to the Japanese market, but the good news is that if you were hoping for a similar device to give to your parents or grandparents, you might be interested to learn that Fujitsu has plans to launch the Raku Raku phone in the US and Europe come 2013. Fujitsu is hoping that by expanding overseas, they will be able to ship more phones and are estimating about 10 million devices shipped in 2014. Given that Panasonic had such lofty goals themselves which did not work out, we certainly hope that Fujitsu will fare better.
For those curious, the Raku Raku is an Android-based smartphone that runs a modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. What makes this more senior citizen-friendly is that it has been modified to feature larger icons and text, while displaying less apps on the home screen in order to lessen any confusion. It will feature basic apps such as the dialer, phone book, email and weather forecast. It is also expected to come with added features like noise cancellation and can even slow down the voice of the caller so that they can be understood better. No word on whether all these features will be available for the international version, or how much it will cost or when it will be available, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled nonetheless.
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