Giants still rule on handsets : But nimble competitors look to compete for 200M units

ORLANDO, Fla.-The intriguing thing about the mobile handset business is that competition and ambition can help a vendor thread the eye of a needle.
To some, that’s the slim opening for vendors not counted among the top-tier, whose five companies claim more than 80 percent of the world’s annual unit shipments.
In a roughly billion-unit-per-year market, that means that dozens upon dozens of companies vie to supply 200 million units, apparently more than enough to fuel the dreams of a handful of vendors announcing products at CTIA Wireless 2007.
HTC, for instance, drew interest at last week’s enterprise session at the Smartphone Summit with two devices that fall somewhere between traditional slabs and mini-laptops. The “Shift”-a rectangular device that flips open to provide a seven-inch screen-provides Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista operating system, a 30-gigabyte hard drive, a QWERTY keyboard and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, quad-band EDGE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Where HTC is something of an upstart, championing the spread of Windows Mobile in the United States, Kyocera Wireless has been doing business by catering to the tier-two network operators. Kyocera is touting its research-driven handsets to operators at the show, with four models based on consumer-segmentation studies and the work of a new designer. Its M1000 QWERTY slider is designed for messaging, its E1000 is a slim flip, its E5000 flagship is a stylish slim flip and its S1000 is an entry-tier offering.
Then there are aggressive Chinese companies such as Alcatel Mobile Phones (a sub-brand of TCL Communications). Alcatel announced that this year it plans to provide more than 15 models to tier-two U.S. carriers and MVNOs; the models roll out in April and continue through the year.
Getting back to the giants who rule the land, Motorola Inc. offered up two slabs, the MC35 EDA (enterprise digital assistant) is touted as a rugged slab with bar-code scanner, the fruit of Moto’s acquisition of Symbol Technologies. (AT&T Inc.’s wireless unit will sell it through its enterprise channels.) Where the Q is for prosumers, the MC35 is for the loading dock, according to Sheldon Safir, director of product marketing in enterprise mobility. The Moto Q9H has a multimedia and messaging focus with HSDPA; it was introduced at the enterprise session of the Smartphone Summit by Rick Osterloh, senior director of product marketing in the vendor’s mobile devices division.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications announced its newest Walkman handset for North America, the W580, a slim slider that emphasizes the vendor’s successful music functionality. Tellingly, SEMC also announced a deal with Sagem for an original device manufacturing role. SEMC has been lining up partners to expand its volume-based business in emerging markets and elsewhere, while Sagem needed more business to sustain itself.
LG Electronics Co. announced the CU500v, a flip that will offer AT&T’s videoconferencing service, the LG VX8700 for Verizon Wireless’ Vcast service and others. The vendor also announced the hiring of M. Ehtisham Rabbani as vice president of marketing and product strategy.