Siemens strengthens focus on AsPac market

SHANGHAI, China – As part of the acceleration of its mobile communications activities in Asia, Siemens is continuing its focus on China as the largest market in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lothar Pauly, board member of Siemens’ Information and Communication Mobile Group (Siemens mobile), stressed the importance of Asia to Siemens mobile’s worldwide mobile communications business.

The global headquarters for voice-centric mobile phones, Pauly announced, was recently established in Beijing. This marked the first time that the central responsibility for one of Siemens mobile’s business activities had been established in China.

The 50-man voice-centric team will develop affordable entry-level mobile phones for people who use their phones more for communications than for data exchange.

On mobile network infrastructure, Siemens mobile continues to favor both the Chinese TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standard as well as W-CDMA. The investment volume, Pauly said, now amounts to hundreds of millions of euros.

Siemens’ newly established international headquarters for voice-centric phones, Pauly said, was in response to the strong demand for affordable, entry-level mobile phones in the Asian market.

The 50 experts comprising the Beijing team, he said, will be doubled over the course of the current fiscal year.

In addition to developing mobile phones, the team is also working on localizing voice and menu operation for the Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese markets, and beginning 2003, in Hindi for the Indian market.

Because the Asian market is increasingly influencing mobile phone size, style and applications globally, Siemens mobile is looking for trends and talent.

For instance, the Shanghai-based firm designafairs S Point, the newly opened Chinese branch office of Siemens’ design department, provides ideas for the Asian market.

Siemens Mobile Acceleration, whose mission is to foster start-ups with innovative mobile business ideas, has offices in Shanghai and Beijing, from where teams of Siemens employees are on the constant lookout for start-ups with compelling applications for mobile networks and mobile devices.

To date, Siemens has invested in Magus Soft, a Beijing-based Chinese start-up that develops and markets gaming and entertainment applications to operators and handset vendors.

More investments are planned in the region in the next six months. "Everyday, we receive good ideas for broadening our mobile communications business. People in Asia are open-minded to new technologies. What we find here are well-trained employees who can support us in achieving our objectives. That’s why we’re putting our confidence in this market," said Pauly.

There was also good news from the field of mobile network infrastructure: Siemens mobile is one of the front-runners in third-generation (3G) mobile communications.

In addition to Europe, W-CDMA test networks are also up and running in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. "In Europe, we built the first fully functional W-CDMA networks in England and Monaco. And we’ll soon have similar successes to report with TD-SCDMA networks," Pauly said.

Siemens mobile is developing the 3G standard together with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technologies (CATT). Some 150 Siemens employees are currently working on this technology in China.

Following a number of successful tests in which voice and data were transferred error-free, it is now anticipated that the Chinese government will reach a decision on authorizing this standard.

"In China, TD-SCDMA is every bit as important to us as W-CDMA. We will continue to pursue this development and will be sustaining our investments to the tune of more than 50 million euros during the current year. The total investment volume ranges well into the hundreds of millions of euros," Pauly said.