It seems like everyone wants a piece of a good thing, and given Android’s continuing rise in popularity, Panasonic is another company that is vying to throw their hat in the ring.  Keisuke Ishii, board member and director of the Mobile Terminal Business Unit at Panasonic Mobile Communications, said: “The global market for smartphones based on open source platforms including Android will reach 100 million units in three years.  We are discussing specific measures to succeed in such a large market.”

Although no specific date or plan was mentioned, Mr. Ishii indicated that Panasonic plans on entering the overseas mobile phone markets, with Android-based handset development in mind, by fiscal year 2010.  Competition breeds innovation, so welcome to the party, Panasonic, and we will keep an eye on you!

According to our sister site, phoneArena.com, Sony Ericcson’s Asia-Pacific marketing vice president Peter Ang said that the company has plans of their own for an Android-powered handset.  They plan on releasing an Android 2.0 phone in the future, but given there’s no firm date for Android 2.0, we can’t give you a firm date for Sony Ericcson’s phone, either. Take this last bit with a grain of salt in that there is no “official” announcement, but mere rumor and conjecture.

source: Tech-on, phoneArena via ePrice (translated)