Fujitsu targets North American smartphone market, uses Tegra 3 Android phone ...

Fujitsu confirmed its looking to enter the North American smartphone and tablet market, and could use a prototype Android phone running the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor to do so.

In Japan, Fujitsu is one of the mobile industry’s big players, but the company really isn’t well-known for phones elsewhere in the world. At CES 2012 they’ve been showing some very interesting new devices, and has now confirmed in an interview they’re planning a push into the North American market.

Speaking to AllThingsD.com at CES, Fujitsu’s senior vice president called the US market a “priority”, and added that they didn’t want to be seen as just another mobile phone company, but rather as a “special” one. It’s a tough ask, given the amount of players already in the game, and Fujitsu is still evaluating which products to introduce.

While there were water-resistant tablets and smartphones, and the IS12T Windows Phone 7 device, on display at CES, it’s their prototype Android phone that most will be hoping they choose to spearhead any international campaign.

The unnamed device is all set to be the first phone on the market that uses NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor, the same chip seen in the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. NVIDIA always said the Tegra 3 would power both smartphones and tablets, and we’ve been waiting for the first example to break cover ever since.

Fujitsu’s super-phone was kept safely inside a plastic case at the show, but a game of Riptide GP was used to demonstrate its abilities. As it’s a prototype at the moment, the design and specs may not be final, but as of now it has a 4.6-inch HD touchscreen, a 13.1-megapixel camera, LTE connectivity and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

That should be enough to pique the interest of networks and consumers alike, and Fujitsu told Pocket-Lint.com they would have a fully operational version of the phone ready for Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Let’s hope there’s some more news concerning its launch too.