Japan's largest IT services vendor Fujitsu plans to launch a wide range of smartphone and tablet devices for the first time in Europe, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Fujitsu is already a large handset and tablet maker in Japan with about a fifth of the market, but is looking to challenge the dominance of European market leaders such as Apple and Samsung, the FT said.

The newspaper did not say when Fujitsu would launch the products in Europe's fast-growing and high-margin mobile device market, but said the company is targeting a double-digit market share in the next three to five years.

Japanese handset makers have struggled to compete in European markets, in part owing to a focus on technology for the domestic market. But the company's new handsets and tablets use technology it has developed that can be used globally, according to the FT.

The Japanese market has been in a silo from a technology and design perspective, but Fujitsu is bringing out a global product, Robert Pryke, the company's director for mobile phone business in Europe, was cited as saying in the article.

(Reporting by Stephen Mangan; Editing by Richard Pullin)

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