A few more pieces have fallen into place for the Philips Consumer Communications division as it pulls together its wireless handset sales machine to build a brand name in the United States.
The Philips brand is well known in Europe, but Philips downplayed its own name in favor of its Magnavox brand in the Americas, said Matthew Wolk, vice president of marketing for the Americas.
“Now we will be spending significant dollars on advertising campaigns linking Philips to the Magnavox name, and we think a [Philips] brand will be established,” he said.
Philips’ first wireless product for the Americas will be the Fizz analog cellular phone, to be introduced Jan. 9.
Philips Consumer Communications recently broke ground in Fremont, Calif., for a facility that will build digital and analog cellular phones. Research and development also will be conducted in Fremont. U.S. headquarters for Philips Consumer is in Irving, Texas, just outside of Dallas.
Digital handsets built for the Americas will support both Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access standards.
Philips also expects to import and market pagers from its European factory. To strengthen its position in the paging industry, Philips entered into a cross-licensing agreement with Motorola Inc. in September for the entire family of FLEX messaging capabilities.
Philips introduced Fizz handsets last year in Asia; the phones were based on the Global System for Mobile communications standard. Philips also manufactures handsets for Asia’s enhanced Total Access Communications standard. Singapore is the regional base for Philips’ Asian operations.
Philips has manufacturing facilities in Cambridge, England; Le Mans, France; and Hong Kong.
Philips Consumer Communications is a business group of Philips Electronics NV, based in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The Consumer division intends to leverage the expertise of other business groups for its Consumer Communications unit. Philips Semiconductors is a leading manufacturer of chipsets for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone equipment. Philips is a global supplier of thin liquid crystal displays for cellular phones. Philips also manufactures Subscriber Identity Module cards at the Philips Smart Cards & Systems plant in Caen, France.
Philips announced earlier this year its plan to become a leading global handset manufacturer. It launched the new Consumer business unit and lured Osmo Hautanen away from Nokia Corp. to lead the Texas-based group. Hautanen had an 18-year career with Nokia and most recently was responsible for developing and managing its entry into the personal communications services market. Hautanen is the president of Philips Consumer Communications of the Americas.
Raymond Bauer is Philips Consumer’s new vice president of sales. He has 13 years of sales and management experience in the telecommunications business, including time spent with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, First Cellular Group and Motorola Inc.
