Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG.Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phones, the AL21, A31 and AF51, were released in November 2005.
History
The first Siemens mobile phone, the Siemens Mobiltelefon C1, was launched in 1985. In 1994 the Siemens S1GSM phone was launched.In 1997 Siemens launched the first phone with a colour screen, the Siemens S10, with a screen capable of displaying red, green, blue and white.In the same year Siemens launched the first "outdoor" phone, the Siemens S10 Active, with enhanced shock, dust and splash protection.Siemens launched the first slider phone, the Siemens SL10, in 1999.
Siemens acquired the mobile phone division of Bosch in 2000.In the same year Siemens launched one of the first phones with an MP3 player and external memory card support (MultiMediaCard), the Siemens SL45.
In 2003 Siemens launched its first phone running on the Symbian OS operating system, the Siemens SX1.
The phone featured hot swappable MultiMediaCard.
In the same year Siemens launched the Xelibri range of fashion phones.
In 2005 Siemens launched the first phone with real GPS support, the Siemens SXG75.
As of Q3 2000, Siemens had an 8.6% mobile handset market share, putting it behind Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia.[1] For the calendar year 2003, Siemens was again fourth behind Samsung, Motorola and Nokia, with a figure of 8.5%.[2] In 2004 it decreased to 7.2%.[3] Siemens Mobile was making large losses and plummeting sales at this time.By the first quarter of 2005, market share was down to 5.6% as it fell behind competitors LG and Sony Ericsson.Their Xelibri range of phones, which was the company's answer to the fashionable handset trend at the time, became a costly failure.[4]
On 7 June 2005, the Taiwanese company BenQ agreed to acquire the loss-making Siemens Mobile from Siemens,[5] together with exclusive right to use the Siemens trademark on its mobile phones for 5 years.[6] Before transferring the mobile phone subsidiary to BenQ, Siemens invested 250 million euros and wrote down assets amounting to 100 million euros.[7] Siemens also acquired a 2.5% stake in BenQ for 50 million euros.BenQ subsequently released mobile phones under the BenQ-Siemens brand, from its German unit.In 2006 the German unit of BenQ filed for bankruptcy.[8][9]
Siemens restarted the production of mobile phones under the Gigaset brand name.
Products
Classifications
Depending on their name, the Siemens mobiles have the following classifications:
Within a class, the numbers have the following meaning:
A series: low-cost phones with basic functionality.
C series: mid-range phones.
M series: phones with military specifications for outdoor activities.
S series: flagship phones
U series: UMTS devices manufactured in 2003 by Motorola Mobility, USA and rebranded under "Siemens" name.
Secondary alphabet position initials
xF cradle phones
xL sliding phones (exceptions: Siemens SL45 and Siemens CL75)
xX phones with advanced features
xK phones with a full QWERTY keyboard (Siemens SK65)
the first digit (1-9) denotes the level of functionality of the phone;
the second digit indicates the generation of the phone. The phones are also of the first generation of the model, containing the numbers 1, 6, 8.
List of products
Siemens A31
Siemens A35
Siemens A36
Siemens A40
Siemens A50: one of the most popular Siemens phones, Shares same hardware as C45 and can be upgraded to C45 by firmware flash.
Siemens A51
Siemens A52: monochrome, GSM 900 / GSM 1800, no GPRS, no USB, IrDA or Bluetooth.[10] Same as A55/A56
Siemens A53
Siemens A55: monochrome, GSM 900 / GSM 1800, no GPRS, no USB, no IrDA or Bluetooth. Shares same hardware as C55 and can be upgraded to C55 by firmware flash.
Siemens A56: monochrome, GSM 850 / GSM 1900, no
Gallery
Sponsorships
Siemens Mobile had previously sponsored football clubs Cruzeiro (2004), Real Madrid (2002–2005), Olympiacos (2000–2005), Lazio (2000–2003) and Bordeaux (2000–2004).
Siemens CF110: TFT 130x130 display, GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900, no camera
Siemens CFX65 (the first Siemens clamshells form factor with built in VGA camera and flash. CFX65 is the only model of Siemens that had a torch, you close the flip and double press volume the up key to start the torch.)
Siemens CL50 (Developed By Arista)
Siemens CL55 (Developed By LG Electronics )
Siemens CL75, CL75 Black Edition, CL75 Poppy Edition
Siemens S10 (World's First phone with colour display)
Siemens S11 (Variant of S10 with GSM 1800 frequency while S10 was GSM 900 but it is also the world's first phone with colour display)
Siemens S15
Siemens S25
Siemens S35i
Siemens S40
Siemens S42
Siemens S45
Siemens S45i
Siemens S46
Siemens S55 (Fully wireless connections with Bluetooth 1.1 and IrDA port)
Siemens S55 Formula One
Siemens S56
Siemens S57 (Only IrDA port supportable)
Siemens S65
Siemens S65 DVBH, SXX65 (Concept phone) run on LINUX
Siemens S66 (Minor-changes for some countries), S66 or S65 (for Xingular)
Siemens S68 (rebranding and selling in BenQ-Siemens S68, the SP65 successors)
Siemens S75 ( FE75 Internal pre-models)
Siemens SF65 (co-development with Philips N.V. (France), the same models with Philips 760 twists)
Siemens SFG75 (Developed by BenQ, same with BenQ S80 UMTS)
Siemens SG75 (cancelled, in the same family with SXG75)
Siemens SK65, SK6B and SK6R (Co-development with The RIM BlackBerry and run parallels between "Siemens_X65 platform" and "BlackBerry 3.8 OS". Select BB Icons on Main Menu then press "Option"-> "About" for the BBOS version pre installed info.)
Siemens SK65 Burlwood Editions
Siemens SP65 (S65 without Camera)
Siemens SL10: the world firstly sliding mobile phone with a four-colour screen (Red, Green, Blue and White)
Siemens SL42
Siemens SL45: the worlds first phone with an MP3 Player
Siemens SL45i
Siemens SL55
Siemens SL56: the American version of the Siemens SL55, available only on AT&T.
