| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 18, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN COVER STORY
Europe's Edge in the Net-Phone Battles LEADING CELL-PHONE MAKERS Finland's Nokia is the world's No. 1 cellular phone brand, from the U.S. to China, with a quarter of the global market and half the profits. The Continent boasts other strong contenders, including Ericsson and Alcatel. WORLDWIDE OPERATORS Britain's Vodafone has become the first truly global mobile phone operator since its January buyout of the U.S.'s AirTouch. Other Europeans are coming on strong, including Germany's Mannesmann and Spain's Telefonica. They will have to take on rivals such as AOL, Yahoo!, and Japan's NTT DoCoMo. SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS Spurred by the success of companies such as Nokia and Vodafone, software startups catering to the mobile industry have been sprouting up around Europe. Some design specific systems for following traffic or weather, while others are putting together custom-made products for corporations, linking sales forces with mobile phones to company Intranets. SEMICONDUCTOR MAKERS Europe's strength in mobile phones is luring the global leaders in chips to the Continent. Texas Instruments and Lucent have both based their key manufacturing operations for the mobile phone business in Europe. They're working alongside Europe's STMicroelectronics, Philips, and Siemens to supply the mobile industry, from handsets to base stations. SMART CARDS Europe leads in these credit-card-like devices, which will soon become key payment tools for e-commerce over smart phones. France's Gemplus and Schlumberger are world leaders in the design and production of smart cards. DATA: BUSINESS WEEK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS Smart Phones (int'l edition) COVER IMAGE: Smart Phones TABLE: Europe's Edge in the Net-Phone Battles Taking a Net Phone for a Spin (int'l edition) PHOTO: Alcatel's Web Touch Phone ``I'm Online All the Time, and It's Free'' (int'l edition) INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
