LG Electronics Inc. still plans to introduce an Android-based tablet computer in Japan this month, even as the country grapples with the aftermath of its strongest earthquake on record.
"There's no reason to believe there will be any delay from our previous estimate," Ken Hong, a Seoul-based spokesman for the world's third-largest handset maker, said Thursday.
NTT DoCoMo Inc., the exclusive carrier for LG's Optimus Pad, started taking advance orders for the model Tuesday as initially planned, and shipments will begin by the end of the month, said Naoko Minobe, a spokeswoman for DoCoMo.
Japan is one of the first markets where the tablet computer, sporting an 8.9-inch touch screen and running the latest version of Google Inc.'s Android operating system, will go on sale. LG unveiled the tablet, its first using Android, in Barcelona last month.