Fujitsu’s easy-to-use smartphones for seniors are headed overseas, reports the Asahi Shimbun. When we first ran into the company’s Raku Raku smartphone at Docomo’s summer launch event we were impressed with its simplified interface, wondering whether it would carch on among Japan’s aging citizenry. The company’s president Masami Yamamoto said that while the company thinks the move can help bolster its shipment numbers — from 8 million in 2012 to a projected 10 million in 2014 — the company has no plans to market its high-end Arrows phones outside Japan.

Limits the home screen to just a few easy-to-use apps

The Raku Raku smartphone runs a modified version of Android 4.0 that uses larger, highly legible text, and limits the home screen to just a few easy-to-use apps such as a dialer, phone book, email, and weather forecast. It also adds senior-friendly features like noise cancellation and a voice-slowing feature that makes it easier to understand what the caller is saying, although it's too early to say for sure whether these features will be available on overseas models. So far there’s no word on carrier availability, but we’ll keep you abreast of any developments.