Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer, DBTEL Inc (
"By the end of this year we will begin to put DBTEL-brand handsets on store shelves in the UK," Danny Shieh (鮮刻振), CEO of DBTEL International (Europe) Ltd told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Formerly known as Dialer and Business Electronics Co, DBTEL produced mobile phones for Motorola as well as cordless phones for US companies AT&T and Radio Shack.
After shipping out its first mobile phones in 1998, DBTEL officially launched DBTEL-brand handsets in China and Taiwan's markets in 2001.
According to Canice Mckee, marketing manager at DBTEL International, the company is currently in talks with several European mobile-phone service operators -- such as with UK-based Virgin Mobile Telecoms Ltd on selling DBTEL handsets in their 500 stores around the country.
British-based DBTEL International will first follow this strategy in the UK before tackling other markets -- including Italy, Spain, France and Portugal, McKee said.
One market watcher at Gartner, a global information-technology-industry research center, said DBTEL's distribution strategy is on the right track.
"It's a smart plan to link up with operators for distribution, especially for a new market entrant with few local sales channels," said Ann Liang (
However, she added that since Virgin Mobile is not a major player in the market, the results of the collaboration could be very limited.
Virgin Mobile has about two million subscribers in Britain.
"This move is more like a trial before DBTEL joins the crowded European market," Liang said.
Meanwhile, another industry pundit said the plan does have its risks.
DBTEL brand recognition in the European market is virtually non-existent and therefore the plan may be premature, said Ben Wood, another market analyst at Gartner in the UK.
He explained that European cellphone companies such as Nokia Oyi, Siemens AG, Alcatel and Sony Ericsson have been in the market for years, and have built strong brand awareness as well as close relationships with local sellers.
The challenges in gaining market share in Europe are formidable since DBTEL has to start from scratch, Wood added.
According to Gartner, Nokia Oyi, Motorola Inc, Siemens AG, Samsung Electronics Co and Sony Ericsson are the top five handset brands in Europe, controlling more than 80 percent of the total market.
Once DBTEL joins this crowded market, they will be just one of many second-tier companies -- like South Korean-based LG Electronics Co -- who has to compete for the remaining percentage of the market, Wood said.
Founded in 1979, DBTEL has factories in Shanghai, Tianjin, Taipei and Penang, and have an annual manufacturing capacity of 16.5 million handset units.
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