Exactly ten years ago today, an era came to an end: the mobile phone manufacturer Siemens, popular with German customers, decided after a long rumor to hand over the production of mobile phones to the Taiwanese company Benq. At that time it was still assumed that the takeover would mean that mobile phone development and production “Made in Germany” could continue undeterred. But even under the Benq flag, things continued to decline.
From 1994 to 2005, Siemens shaped the German market like no other company with its cell phone models. Siemens had its best days at a time when the behavior of Germans on mobile communications was changing dramatically: While cell phones were only of interest to business people in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Siemens models also ensured that cell phones seeped into many people’s everyday lives who initially wondered what they were supposed to do with a mobile phone. After all, there was a red or green post office telephone at home, perhaps also a fax and in any case a mailbox at the entrance – there was no need for more communication at the time.
SMS, MMS and, above all, the mobile Internet ensured, step by step, that the demands of Germans on mobile phones changed significantly. The booming market led to more competition from European companies such as Sagem , Alcatel and, above all, Nokia , which would become Siemens’ toughest adversary. But more and more competition from the Far East also pushed into the German market. Samsung phonesand LG still had – and rightly – a reputation for being cheap cell phones that were not very robust and could not compete with Siemens devices “made in Germany” in terms of quality. But the price war against Asia troubled Siemens as well as other German technology manufacturers and, in addition to the competition from Nokia, ensured that the Siemens management decided in 2005 to sell the mobile phone division to Benq. Hopes for a continuation of the Siemens story under the umbrella of Benq were quickly dashed: after a few new models, Benq filed for bankruptcy in Germany in 2006 and closed the last production facilities in 2007. The end of Siemens’ mobile communications division was therefore only insignificant delayed. The most important models are to be revived in this article.
THE 10 MOST IMPORTANT MODELS
A list of the ten most important Siemens cell phones can of course only be subjective, because everyone has a different focus. The editorial team decided on the following models, which represent a milestone in the 11-year history for very different reasons:
Siemens Mobile: The German mobile phone manufacturer’s most successful milestones
In 1994, the Siemens S1 was the first mobile phone from Siemens. Except for a phone call in the GSM network, there were no functions at that time. The battery life was a phenomenal two weeks compared to today’s models. A year later, Siemens launched its first model with SMS functionality, the S3, which was hardly noticed at the time.
In 1997, Siemens launched the S10, the world’s first cell phone with a color display. At least four different colors could be represented. Only a few months later, the SL10, the first slider cell phone, came onto the market: This form factor, which has now almost been forgotten, ensured compact dimensions in the pocket and, at the same time, good telephony behavior when extended. With the S25 from 1999, Siemens set milestones again shortly before the turn of the millennium: A graphic display instead of the previously usual lines of text and an integrated modem for faxes and data were all the rage at the end of the 1990s.
With the successful C35 model , Siemens is likely to have celebrated its greatest commercial success in 2000. This compact entry-level mobile phone found a large number of users and, together with the popular prepaid entry-level packages, became a real box-office hit. In 2001, with the S45 / ME45, the business and outdoor versions of the C35 hit the shelves.
THE TURNING POINT IS BETWEEN C35 AND SYMBIAN
In 2003, Siemens introduced the SX1 , an operating system that was still new at the time . The Symbian model was technically at the forefront of the market and yet Siemens was already in the red with its mobile phone business at this time, because Symbian also helped to ensure the rise of Nokia. Siemens’ flagship model of 2004, the S65 , came, as usual, in the outdoor version M65 and the slider version SL65 . Sales were good, but apparently not good enough to prevent the crash.
When, in 2005, the S75 and the UMTS variant SXG75, the last independent Siemens device came onto the market, the sale to Benq was already a done deal. The UMTS variant indicates that technical know-how was not the problem at Siemens. The Siemens mobile communications division is more likely to have failed because it was unable to survive the merciless price war of the 2000s despite its good image and outstanding technology. During this time, Nokia and Co. have clearly understood how to satisfy the needs of their customers.
A similar upheaval only marked Apple in 2007 with the first iPhone. With the well-known consequences for Nokia, which considered themselves invulnerable for many years after the end of Siemens on the German market.
