SIEMENS

Siemens Mobile was founded in 1985 in Munich, Germany, as a division of Siemens AG, and released its first analog mobile phone, the Mobiltelefon C1. In 1994, it launched the Siemens S1, one of the first GSM phones capable of receiving SMS messages. From 1994 onwards, the company released a series of mobile phones until 2005, when, due to financial difficulties, it was acquired by the Taiwanese company BenQ. BenQ subsequently released mobile phones under the brand name BenQ-Siemens. In 2006, BenQ’s German unit filed for bankruptcy, leading Siemens to resume the production of mobile phones under the brand name Gigaset.