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DJ REPEAT:THE SKEPTIC: Siemens Mobile Needs To Dial For Help
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Remember those early days of mobile phones when odds were about even that you'd just get a connection? Siemens now has a whole mobile phone division hoping that a phone will ring, somewhere.
The first-quarter numbers show the mobile devices division is all but out of options, and Klaus Kleinfeld, the new CEO as of noon Thursday, will have to immediately realize one of those options or face the prospect of treating a whole division like an obsolete phone.
Teaming up with one of the big Asian players - such as Panasonic, Samsung, LG Electronics, Ningbo Bird, NEC - that have damaged Siemens could open markets in Asia. Geographically, China looks like the best place where Siemens might find enough customers to turn things around.
The big U.S. market is long since beyond Siemens' reach. Europe is the brightest spot in the company's mobile operation, but that isn't saying much. Like-for-like sales fell 18% while volumes dropped 13% in the first quarter as the average price of the phones fell to EUR86 from EUR98.
If Kleinfeld doesn't want to just close the whole division, here's hoping he realizes that cultural affinity to Europe won't save it. The nice range of handsets and good technology are now par for the course in this business.
Siemens is master of its own demise in mobiles and it can no longer be master of its own future destiny. That will be decided by competitors.
-By Howard Wheeldon, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]
(Readers are invited to respond to Skeptic columns by e-mailing the columnist named at the end of each item or the Skeptic Editor, Erik T. Burns, at [e-mail])

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-27-05 0630ET