). The announcement was made during a conference call that was held to announce the company's financial results for the fiscal year. Company President Hideo Tanimoto said that the reason why it is leaving the consumer end of the smartphone business is due to a lack of profits.
Tanimoto was asked why Kyocera is no longer going to be involved in consumer smartphones and his response, translated by Google, was,"The [spread] of high-speed communication standard ‘5G’ will raise the cost of terminals. We decided to withdraw because we could not make a profit.
Kyocera isn't planning on completely leaving the smartphone industry as the new plan calls for the company to focus completely on smartphones for businesses. Kyocera's president also said that some of its consumer-based smartphones that were also sold to corporations will still be supported. For example, the Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G could be considered a phone for consumers, but its"ultra-ruggedness" also makes it attractive for certain businesses to use.
While Kyocera exits the consumer smartphone market, later this week we will see the return of HTC as it is