Key themes

The report states, "CeBIT confirmed our view that competition in GPRS may be tougher than it was for GSM, with particular effort being evident from the far - eastern manufacturers." It goes on to say that Mitsubishi’s trium "Eclipse" captured its imagination with its high specification colour screen GPRS model using 4 receiving (4RX) and 2 transmitting (2 TX) timeslots. The phone is expected to be available by the end of the third quarter of calendar 2001. Nokia, on the other hand, was less adventurous with its GPRS offering, choosing to upgrade its existing models. Ericsson’s T-68 high-end color phone looked more promising and included an internal antenna. Motorola maintained its lead in terms of time to market with GPRS by extending its range across its respective price points.

Mobile phone strategy

Nokia believes the "mass market" for GPRS terminals will come along in the first half of calendar 2002 and for 3G in the first half of calendar 2003. It believes that it is well on its way to capture 40 per cent market share, an "internal" target previously set. However it has consciously decided to leave the form factor virtually unchanged from the existing 6,000 and 8,000 ranges, which is likely to limit its access in the replacement market.

Nokia also does not offer colour screens in its GPRS systems in contrast to Mitsubishi and Ericsson. However Nokia’s phones will use the latest version of WAP--- version 1.2.1--- which enables push technology. Moreover, Nokia has already launched a WAP enabled phone for the lower end --- version 1.1--- which has a music player as an accessory along with an integrated FM stereo

On the other hand Ericsson announced its strategy to have GPRS as standard application in all its mobile phones by 2002. It has decided not to release any single mode 3G phones, preferring to target the larger market of dual-mode phones. Further it re-iterated on its earlier resolve to have a 3G phone available in early 2002. Towards this end it has decided to make available two GPRS phones, T39 and T68, the first in the second quarter and the second in the fourth quarter of calendar 2001. Both phones will be tri-band, WAP-enabled and will support HSCSD and Bluetooth. T68 will have two firsts for Ericsson, a colour display and an internal antenna. It will also have multimedia messaging service or MMS and digital imaging and audio capabilities.

Motorala, which already has two GPRS phones available in the market, launched four more GPRS phones to extend its range across its respective price points. Siemens too launched its first GPRS phone, the S45, to be available in the market in July 2001, which will feature a WAP 1.2 browser.

On the other hand Alcatel delayed its GPRS launch after withdrawing its previous announced GPRS One Touch 700 and 502 models. It now intends to launch a GPRS phone only towards the end of the year and will most likely use a form factor similar to One Touch 500.

Wireless infrastructure market strategy

There were no significant new product launches at CeBIT in the wireless infrastructure market except for Ericsson, which launched a system that will allow roaming for pre-paid subscribers. Ericsson said it will begin rolling out its 3G pre-commercial systems in the second half of calendar 2001 but volume shipments will occur only in calendar 2002. Nokia said it will launch its first major dual-mode network in the second half of calendar 2002. Nortel sounded even more downbeat when it declared that launch of 3G could get further delayed due to lack of availability of phones and applications. It believes that WCDMA is unlikely to be up and running commercially before the end of 2002 even though trials could begin in the third or the fourth quarter of calendar 2001.