Our focus is on creating value with profitability before market share. We are targeting to achieve breakeven by the end of 2006. We will get there by:

- a market strategy exploiting complementary strengths of both brands in terms of multimedia, design, operator customization and market / cutomer reach.

- enhancing our portfolio in the mid/high end: the 2006 roadmap will feature an array of UTMS and multimedia rich devices lifting up the average selling price. This year, 30% of all products are 3G. 75% feature music players / FM radios. 75% feature Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

A few years back, I had noticed that Siemens needed a lot of help with their mobile phone designs when they came up with the dumb idea of the SX1. Of course, my fears were put to rest when they did a “last hurrah” with the E71 before the merger with BenQ.

With the formation of BenQ-Siemens, the industry thought that they would become a hip hardware giant like Sony-Ericsson. There were several phones that were announced:

To quote the final Q&A interview, this is what BenQ-Siemens had to say at that time:

“Keep Exploring” Exploration is the key phrase of BenQ-Siemens.

Sigh. Thank you BenQ-Siemens for an interesting year. It was fun while it lasted. I guess we all had to keep exploring.

Post from: Cellphone9

Even though BenQ and Siemens have managed to release several successful mobile phone models, market share of BenQ-Siemens combined was only 3.2% in Q2 2006, whereas Siemens’ market share in Q2 2005 was 4.8%, moreover, mobile phone shipments in Q2 2006 decreased by over 20% year-over-year, according to Gartner Research. Moreover, the German subsidiary continued to lose money and could not increase the pace of new models introduction.

“We have been trying to improve the cost structure of our handset subsidiary BenQ Mobile in Germany for over the past year. However, the costs there were not falling as fast as we had expected, while the introduction of new products was lagging far behind schedule,” Mr. Lee added at a press-conference in Taipei, Taiwan, reports DigiTimes web-site. (source)

Well, if you’re going to attribute failure to something, maybe you should take a look at this upcoming phone they were supposed to release. *sigh* This is actually a “history repeats itself” failure of the Siemens SX1 when they tried to introduce the really dumb idea of putting keys on the sides. Thank you BenQ-Siemens for your time and efforts.

You can view the full press release here.

Post from: Cellphone9

I really wonder how much these things sell for when you brand them with Sanrio. But if you base statistics on this, well, BenQ-Siemens sure needs the help!

Post from: Cellphone9

Well two things have it going for the S88. First off, the OLED screen is something you don’t see in phones a lot. Heck, OLED is the new lamp! The screen is so bright, you would actually think the phone is a fake demonstration unit.

Second, the S88 has superb battery life, seemingly outlasting the Sony Ericssons and Nokias. I guess this would be attributed to the fact that OLED is not power hungry.

Post from: Cellphone9

The following features are included:

- a speech to text application (as well as the text to speech app which the P50 already has)

- upgrade of WLAN to 802.11g

- an optional GPS navigation module

- stereo sound and the ability to support AAC, AAC+

- best of all, the QWERTY thumb pad is now color coordinated to distinguish numbers from letters (I guess they read my post on thumb board design)

What I didn’t like was that the 1.3MP received no upgrade whatsoever. Of course, one could argue that for an enterprise device, who really needs the camera?

But still, I have this new viewpoint that devices that have cameras aren’t even supposed to be considered as convergence devices anymore. Cameras are staples in mobile tech. Case for example is when consumers ask about phone models, their first question would be “so does it have a camera?”

[Via Phoneyworld]

Post from: Cellphone9

What I liked:

The built-in universal remote is a neat little application which I use to change the channels of public televisions.

The speech recognizer allows me to do really cool things like say “Call Steve Jobs” and it follows.

What I didn’t like:

The 1.3MP camera isn’t really that great. Wish they had taken it out and made the device even cheaper. Images are either blurred or dark. Sad. It’s hard to take decent shots with this camera.

The B-wireless WiFi support. This phone was announced in 2005 but is only being released now in some parts of Asia. WTF! Wish they could have at least upgraded WiFi to G.

Can’t wait for mid-year when BenQ-Siemens phases this %^& out for the P51. Rumor has it that the P51 will come with speech to text so I can say “Hi Steve Jobs its Jayvee. Thanks for the complimentary MacBook Pro” and it translates it to text and sends. But before that I wish they’d iron out the stability issues.

Post from: Cellphone9

UPDATE: Alas poor BenQ-Siemens we knew you well. Sadly, BenQ-Siemens is no more. Read more about it here. My friend in retail is now having a much harder time selling off the S88 after the company declared its last hurrah.

The S88 is BenQ-Siemens’ first flagship phone for 2006. It comes in two colors – black and white and from afar borrows a lot from the Sony Ericsson design. I was able to borrow the S88 for a few days and here is my hands on review.

The front of the unit real estate has the regular 0-9 keypad with two menu buttons and two call buttons. At the center is an embedded 5-way joystick that for once, doesn’t hurt my thumb.

The sides of the phone contain the volume control keys on one side and the camera shutter button on the other. I was dissapointed with the camera button because it wasn’t very well constructed: it’s hard to tell if you did a full or half press.

What gladdened me was that BenQ-Siemens applied the Nokia keymap layout (the “0″ is spacebar) for SMS which means that I didn’t have to relearn another user interface for sending SMS.

In a nutshell I was impressed by the improvement in design. The pictures here show the vibrand difference between typical cellphone displays and the OLED screen of thte S88. When I first held it, it seemed like I was holding a dummy unit because the screen seemed like it was plastered on.

Camera

The S88 comes with a built in 2.0Mp Sony lens. I was expecting it to fare in the likes of the k750i but was gravely dissapointed by its slow shutter response. Images on the viewfinder were a bit laggy which makes still night shots a bit hard to do unless you have a really steady hand. Fortunately the S88 also comes with a built-in flash. Here are some samples of the S88’s pictures:

Macro Mode

Normal Mode Focused

Normal Light

Music

The S88 comes with a microSD card. Internal memory houses 20MB of data. So this leaves very little for internal memory music. Now since music is better heard that read about, watch this video.

Wireless Connectivity

Bluetooth beaming was a little slow. The S88 comes with its own sync software. Sadly I was not able to pair the phone with my Macintosh. iSync would recognize it but have no software available yet. I’m pretty sure of the rollout in the next few months though since BenQ-Siemens will be a powerful player in the phone market this 2006.

Availability is set for April 2006 in Asia.

Pros
Bright OLED screen
Loud speakers
Nokia-like button-mapping for SMS

Cons
Camera is a bit slow
Phone UI a bit slow
Does not sync with a Mac (at least now yet)

Post from: Cellphone9

The Pandora has two modes. When it is closed, it serves as a digital music player. In fact, from afar it even looks like a Creative Zen micro.

When opened (as in ‘opening Pandora’s Box’), the phone reveals a small keypad that’s still amazingly easy to use. The back of the phone houses a 1.3MP camera (!!!) as well as the external stereo speakers. Sadly I didn’t have the chance to try out the music playing capabilities.

This phone was announced back in 3GSM and will be available mid-year.

[Tech Digest has a short overview of the specs]

Post from: Cellphone9

Today is the day of hearts, but it is also the day of remembering past heartaches as well. These “what could have beens” will always become the permeable stuff which we will bever be able to shut off from our minds. Now being a geek, I’ve had my past heartaches with women and gadgets alike. The women – well, there were times when I felt used, abandoned, elated, and lifted above my bitter existence. They were the best of times and the worst of times as well.

But the gadgets – well, the phones always provided me with a sense of being complete. I was secure with my phones. I was confident. I was complete.

Back in the old black and white days my first real love was the Nokia 3210. She was the sexiest thing. She didn’t have an antenna. She had moving graphics. She had predictive text. She was fabulous. But first loves are always puppy love, and as I grew older I wanted a phone that had more ambition.

However, something came along the way – I was bribed. And with serious relationships come those that were not serious and I had my flings with two Nokia 3310’s that were given to me. I flirted with each one of them. I had two because .. well .. I could. They were given to me as a gift on separate ocassions. And when you’re young, well, two is better than one.

After a while though, you get tired of flings. And just like that I was temped to upgrade my standards to something more colorful. You see, free is good. Noncommital is good. But as you mature, you’d want something with a lot more character. Something more “me” .. and I opted for the Nokia 3650, the most eccentric S60 phone ever invented at that time.

Damn this phone was eccentric. It was artsy, it was extreme and believe it or not, I kept this phone for more than 2 years despite the weird wheel design. The fact that it was S60-based made it even more powerful. I hacked my way through the limited video capacity and enhanced its video recording time. I downloaded applications to fill the 32MB MMC card. Man, 32MB was a lot then.

The 3650 was by far my longest phone but we had to part ways by necessity. There came a time I was down on cash and I needed all the help I could get to pay bills. In the end, the phone was one of the items that would give heftier returns. So there. One day I sold it. And paid my bills. And wept in the corner of my room.

Depression soon turned to bitterness and bitterness turned ot angst. And to rid myself of this burden I went on again to play short-lived relationships with other phones. I can barely remember them – a Mitac Mio whom I had a one night stand with, a Tanager E200, and even a Nokia 6310i. But these memories were short-lived, in the same way that they ended in a fit of passion.

Then came this.

And my pile of games. Life was looking good. I was playing every night. Tomb Raider. SSX. Splinter Cell. The Sims. Damn my mobile life got a hundred times more exciting. But that was until the N-Gage QD decided to do really weird stuff like hang in the middle of a save, reset in the middle of a call, and just .. die while in my pocket. Sent it back to Nokia once. Sent it again twice. Thrice.

Third time’s a sucker. And never again. So the games are still with me and the phone dead. I’ll probably have it fixed one day, when I decide to get back to playing games while commuting. The N-Gage was a wonderful piece of work though. She was pretty, light and the perfect companion. But what she lacked was stability. And I hate relationships that end up in the gutter.

At this point, I decided to give up on Nokia. It was like giving up on a friend who would set you up with people from the same circle of friends. So I decided to make my own path and took a risk with what some people were calling the Zen of Phones. I jumped ship from the comfort zone of the “0″ spacebar and made my way into the user interface of SE.

And I had no regrets. She rarely threw fits. We always connected. This was the perfect relationship, friends. I was in a new comfort zone of stability, being able to pair her with my beloved iBook, sending SMS seamlessly via Bluetooth and becoming immune to rampant S60 viruses.

Everything was great. I loved her and she loved me giving herself unconditionally even if I dropped her at times and scratched her sexy silver surface.

Everything was great.

Until.

She.

Came.

Along.

She seduced me, Ms. BenQ P50.

Post from: Cellphone9

In my previous post, I did a short preview of the BenQ-Siemens S88, their flagship release which is supposed to be the merger of Eastern form factor and Western technology. In any case, here’s an FAQ about the new BenQ-Siemens mobile.

How will BenQ turn around its mobile business?

We believe that the combination of Siemens and BenQ provides a great opportunity. Firstly BenQ has developed a cost-savings strategy with its strong relationship with Asian component and material suppliers since we are a 3C brand. Secondly, our proximity to the Asian markets should result in stronger sales. BenQ-Siemens will focus on introducing simplicity in design and processes to ensure we can achieve time-to-market.

How will you achieve turnaround in 2006?

Our focus is on crating value with profitability before market share. We are targeting to achieve breakeven by the end of 2006. We will get there by:

- a market strategy exploiting complementary strengths of both brands in terms of multimedia, design, operator customization and market / cutomer reach.

- enhancing our portfolio in the mid/high end: the 2006 roadmap will feature an array of UTMS and multimedia rich devices lifting up the average selling price. This year, 30% of all products are 3G. 75% feature music players / FM radios. 75% feature Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

When will the new brand BenQ-Siemens be available on products?

The new brand will be visible starting Q1 of 2006 on three new products (one of which is the S88). In this quarter we will launch a total of 10 products under the BenQ-Siemens brand, at the 3GSM in Barcelona and at CeBIT in Hanover.

What is the brand vision?

“Keep Exploring” Exploration is the key phrase of BenQ-Siemens. Expect to hear more about this throughout the year.

Post from: Cellphone9