LAS VEGAS-The world’s leading mobile-phone makers launched an extensive array of new devices supporting a range of new technology last week, including GPRS, Bluetooth and full-color displays-moves the companies hope will garner more customers and counteract sluggish phone sales.
Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc., L.M. Ericsson and Siemens AG all introduced new GPRS devices last week, and all have also warned of flagging phone sales or dips in profit since the first of the year. The companies, along with the rest of the wireless industry, are placing high hopes on the faster network connections obtained through technologies like GPRS.
“GPRS represents an opportunity for players like Nokia, Motorola and Siemens to gain some market share,” said Paul Dittner, a wireless analyst with Dataquest.
Motorola, which was first in the GPRS area, released six more GPRS-capable devices last week, proof it is aggressively expanding its GPRS portfolio and is placing much of its hope on the 2.5 generation technology.
Dittner said Motorola’s releases are a good sign for the company, which has seen its share of troubles recently.
Sue Frederick, public-relations specialist for Motorola’s personal communications division, said the company also introduced a variety of technologies to go along with its new product line, including color displays, Bluetooth headset technology and Java-compatible phones. Motorola even redesigned the user interface in its phones, she said.
“It just opens up a whole new world of stuff,” Frederick said.
Among Motorola’s GPRS offerings are tri-band GSM phones, phones with FM radio accessories and-the most advanced-a personal communicator featuring a 256-color display screen, a full QWERTY keyboard and 8 MB of flash memory. The device, which is slightly larger than Motorola’s popular T900 messaging device, is a fully operating personal digital assistant and mobile phone.
Motorola said the devices will likely be available in North America as early as the second half of this year.
Not to be outdone, Ericsson released two high-end GPRS phones, with features like Bluetooth capability, color displays and Multimedia Messaging Service.
Jan Wareby, president of Ericsson’s consumer products business, said the phones represent the company’s focus on the consumer market. In addition, since Ericsson outsourced its mobile-phone manufacturing duties to Flextronics International Ltd., it now has more resources for research and development, he said.
The company’s new phones are the T68 and the T39, which follow Ericsson’s R520 GPRS phone. The T68 is the company’s most advanced offering, weighting in at about 85 grams. It features MMS, digital imaging and a 256-color display.
The T68 will be available before the end of the year, while the T39 is scheduled for a second-quarter release.
Ericsson also released a tri-mode phone for TDMA technology and a mobile camera, which snaps onto GSM phones and is the first of the company’s imaging products.
“I think we show we’re going forward quite strongly,” Wareby said.
Siemens proved it is also moving aggressively into the handset space with the release of its S47, a GSM/TDMA dual-mode handset that is GPRS capable. The phone features a personal organizer, a WAP browser and is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of this year.
Finally, the world’s largest phone maker, Nokia, released two GPRS phones, the 6310 and the 8310. The company is continuing with its fashion-conscious approach to phones-it bills its 8310 as a phone with “a rich plethora of overlapping colors and surfaces,” according to a release from the company. The 8310 should ship during the third quarter. The 6310 will come with Bluetooth and SyncML technologies and should ship during the fourth quarter.
Nokia also released TDMA and CDMA phones last week in hopes of retaining its market dominance.
A variety of other companies at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association’s Wireless 2001 show in Las Vegas last week introduced new phones, including LG InfoComm U.S.A. Inc., Panasonic Telecommunication Systems Co. and European mobile-phone manufacturer Sendo.
Sendo, which is making its first moves into the United States, and LG discussed their plans for third-generation smart phones. During last week’s show, LG unveiled its prototype smart phone, which will be released in conjunction with the rollout of 1xRTT technology.
Dataquest’s Dittner praised phone manufacturers’ moves toward GPRS technology, but cautioned that they and the rest of the industry should be careful not to raise expectations about the capabilities of the technology.
“There’s a potential for disappointment,” he said. “The industry needs to set real expectations.”
Also, Dittner said that, while many companies are beginning to fill out their GPRS product lines, real competition in the area won’t heat up until next year.
