OXFORD, United Kingdom—Despite the sluggish European phone market, Toshiba announced it plans to market Taiwanese-made handsets in Europe to boost sales beyond Japan and the United States. The company, which also said it planned to build a cell-phone factory in China, confirmed that it would supply mobile phones with Internet access to operators in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as early as April 2001 by importing them from the Taiwanese company.
As Toshiba made this move, its rival, Panasonic, said it planned to close its U.K. cell-phone factory and move all production to the Czech Republic where costs are lower. The company, which has produced 23 million Panasonic mobile phones for European markets during the last 13 years, said the move would not affect the company’s research and development (R&D) unit, Matsushita Mobile Communications Development of Europe, which is based in the United Kingdom.
