DUBLIN, Ireland-Siemens has set a target of supplying one in five mobile phones bought in the United Kingdom by 2005. Having firmly established itself as the main challenger to Nokia’s undisputed leadership of the handset market in the United Kingdom, the company is looking to almost double its business during the next two years.
According to figures from GFK Marketing Services, Siemens had a 12.7-percent market share last December, nearly double the volumes recorded by Samsung, the third-largest supplier of handsets in the United Kingdom.
It is highly unlikely that Siemens will be able to put a serious dent in Nokia’s market dominance-more than half of all mobile phones sold in the run-up to Christmas were made by the Finnish manufacturer-but it has never enjoyed greater popularity in one of Europe’s largest markets.
Across Europe, Siemens is estimated to have about 20 percent of the handset market, and Siemens Mobile Chief Executive Rudi Lamprecht said it can make further gains. The company’s U.K. chief Ian Moyes reckons the way to success in the United Kingdom is to sell phones through the operators rather than straight to end users, which reflects purchasing patterns among U.K. mobile subscribers.
