With its feet in the New York Stock Exchange and an eye toward the future, Siemens AG has advanced a package of products and strategies to make it a major player in the U.S. wireless space.
Making its big debut on the threshold of the wireless industry’s great trade show, it teased the world with its offerings and finally made an announcement two weeks ago at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association show in Las Vegas.
The company announced both new handsets as well as network equipment for Time Division Duplex and Frequency Division Duplex technologies. The purpose of both lines of products hints at the two tracks the company hopes to tread in its sojourn through America: devices and technology. These represent the two-pronged foray that has made Siemens a major player around the world, especially in Europe.
“We are a living organism,” proclaimed Heinrich V. Pierer, the German company’s president and chief executive officer. “And (we) are pushing the transformation with our proven methods.”
The company disclosed last February it was planning to ship the S40 phone, its first for the U.S. market. At the CTIA trade show, it announced the S47 phone, a dual-mode GSM/TDMA handset intended for launch in the fourth quarter.
The phone, which is also GPRS-enabled, is small with a nifty design complete with personal organizer, Internet access via WAP browser and voice-activated dialing.
Siemens said the phones would support TDMA 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies as well as GSM 900 MHz and 1900 MHz, which would make it the first global phone of its kind.
The company said the phones are “desirable, powerful, easy to use … and help people share knowledge, thoughts and emotions regardless of time and place.”
The company also announced its S46 phone, which is fancier than its S47 counterpart, according to Graham Paxton, president and chief executive officer, Siemens Information and Communications Mobile.
Siemens also demonstrated a GSM tri-band wristwatch phone, which Paxton identified as proof of what the company could do with communications. He insisted it was not a product announcement.
“The S47 is a remarkably flexible phone that powerfully illustrates Siemens’ long-term commitment to the U.S. mobile market, and it gives us the opportunity to be a significant player in the dual-mode GSM/TDMA space,” said Florian Seiche, vice president and general manager of the mobile phones unit within Siemens Information and Communication Mobile.
In terms of strategy, the German firm discounts CDMA 2000 1x technology, taking the GSM route and hoping to capitalize on the growing profile of the technology in the United States. This contrasts the major vendors in the country like Nokia Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., Ericsson Inc. and Nortel Networks, which are excited by both technologies.
“With our global track record of success with GSM, we believe we can take advantage of the accelerating growth of GSM networks in North America,” said Seiche.
“Many of the top carriers in the U.S. currently have TDMA networks, so this dual-mode phone gives Siemens a strong position to supply phones that meet the demand of carriers and their customers as the transition from TDMA to GSM is made.”
Cingular Wireless is offering the S40 phone. Customers for the new phones will be announced later this year, according to Paxton.
Siemens said it would promote the phone with a brand campaign dubbed “Be inspired,” which would persuade consumers to view them as approachable, global, open-minded, modern and consumer-oriented.
Its TDD and FDD offerings are geared toward fast speed in a 3G environment, which promises rich multimedia services.
With its TDD base station and terminal, the company hopes to differentiate itself with Internet speed and high bandwidth voice and video applications for high traffic density areas like city centers, corporate campuses, universities, airports and shopping malls.
The other offering, FDD with its stationary, self-contained equipment, will focus on lower traffic density areas where equal upload and download speeds are required.
