Since 2000, Siemens has been gaining market share from its competitors as it aggressively addressed the needs of simple to high-end mobile phone users.
Lavenia Perez-Revilla, Siemens country manager for mobile phones said that the company has constantly evolved the design of its phones to respond to the different segments of the market.
The mobile phone market is still growing particularly the replacement market as the total subscriber base in the Philippines is growing.
With an estimated 20 million subscribers and a population of 95 million people, the Philippines has still the potential to grow its mobile phone market.
Revilla noted the growing replacement market for handsets estimated at 15 to 20 percent, while the biggest segment is still the basic phone users.
"A big chunk of the market goes for the mid-tier phones who are aspiring to get new phones with new features. But the basic phone still has the biggest share of the total market," says Revilla.
Siemens comes up with new phones every six months with enhancements in between. Since 2000, the company started with the C-25 models followed by S-25 and now the 55 series.
The mobile phone is major contributor of Siemens business in the country whose portfolio of products include power, transmission, communications, medical, and information technology.
"Our direction is to develop the retail market for our mobile phone products. I believe the market would still grow with the increasing new subscribers. The service providers such as Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular are moving into the provincial markets," says Revilla.
The service providers are investing heavily in expanding their networks, constructing cell sites, upgrading their systems and adding more people to address the growing subscriber base and a possible future shift to 3G technology.
Siemens has recently conducted a survey which showed how mobile phones are seen as a connector to life, a facilitator in matters of the heart and it helps people enhance their lifestyles.
The survey revealed that 82 percent of Filipinos treasure expressions of love like SMS (short messaging sent by their loved ones and save these messages on their mobile phones).
About 59 percent of Filipinos would rather give up a day of surfing the Internet and computer gaming than be without their trusty mobile phones.
In fact, Filipinos don’t receive a call or an SMS for a considerable period of time, say an hour. And 77 percent of Filipinos start checking their phones constantly, just in case it isn’t working or the battery might be flat.
Thirty-one percent of Filipinos, one of the highest incidences among the Asia Pacific countries surveyed, subscribe to a service that sends them updates on the latest news, current promotions and events. This way, they can be sure that they will always be kept abreast of the juiciest news and happening parties.
Fifty-five percent of Filipinos do call or send text messages to their loved one several times a day. Although older Filipinos tend to be more reserved, 51 percent still knew the best way to remind their loved ones that they care by communicating with them regularly by the mobile phone.
The Siemens mobile lifestyle survey was completed in December 2003. Almost 3,000 interviews were conducted by independent research houses in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
In the Philippines, Siemens mobile interviewed 308 people on their mobile lifestyle including males and females within two age brackets: 16 to 29 years and 30 to 60 years old. GFK Marketing Services was commissioned to do the survey. Synovate conducted the survey in China.
