They had their moment of glory, in which they cornered the market. But the world changes at full speed and there is no choice but to adapt to survive. This is a constant that is repeated throughout history, also in the brief but intense history of telephones. In this post Let's remember those mobile brands that disappeared.
Apart from rescuing from oblivion some brands and models that not so long ago became very important, in this article we will also look for the causes that explain its rise and subsequent fall. Perhaps from all this we can draw valuable lessons about the importance of knowing how to adapt to changes in order to survive.
What mobile brands disappeared and why?
Each case is different, that is obvious, although in many cases it is easy to detect certain common elements in these stories of success and failure. Next, we review the mobile brands that one day were at the top and that, suddenly, disappeared without a trace. Surely some of them are still remembered by the readers of this blog. At least for the older ones.
Blackberry
In 1999, the Canadian company Research in Motion launched a mobile phone model that was going to cause a huge impact in this world: the Blackberry, the brand's first model that integrated email. Among its most notable features are a screen with a resolution of 132 x 65 pixels (which allowed up to eight lines of text to be read), an iconic external QWERTY-type keyboard and a side wheel to move around the interface.
The successive Blackberry models, which began to incorporate a rudimentary web browsing system in 2002, reached a 3% market share worldwide, although in certain Latin American countries that percentage reached 45%. %. In those golden years, even the president of the United States, Barack Obama even boasted of using one of these phones. In March 2013, BlackBerry had 71 million users worldwide. From that moment on, it began its unstoppable descent.
The stubbornness of those responsible for the design in clinging to the physical keyboard, which was already beginning to be outdated, led BlackBerry to its downfall. When they wanted to react, with the launch of touch screen models like the Z10 or Curve 8500, It was already too late.
The last attempt to have a gap in the market occurred in 2021, with the presentation of the model Key2. However, the sales figure for this mobile phone turned out to be a complete failure. Hopes were dashed and since then, we have not heard from the brand again.
Siemens
Siemens Mobile, the telephone division of the German giant, had its great moment in the 90s and then went on to become, almost overnight, another of the mobile brands that disappeared without a trace.
The rise of the brand began in 1997 with the launch of the Siemens S10, the first mobile phone with a color screen in the world. The successive models (S6, SL10, S25, C25, etc.), which introduced improvements such as the sliding keyboard or the backlit screen, achieved great sales figures. Its developers even dared to incorporate an MP3 player already create your own operating system, called SymbianIn the year 2003.
But already then the decline had begun. Sales plummeted by half in just two years, to such an extent that Siemens made the decision to close its mobile telephone division in 2005. It was the price to pay for not keeping up with the technological evolution that was already underwaya, in addition to some notable software errors.
Ericsson
The Swedish company Ericsson played a leading role in the mobile phone world at the beginning of this century, all thanks to its alliance with the giant Sony. A happy, although not eternal, marriage that lasted from 2001 to 2012.
Its first models were authentic "bricks", but over time these were refined and, why not say it, quite blatantly copying the aesthetics and functions of its rival Nokia, such as in the Sony Ericsson T66. The success story continued with models such as the Xperia X1 until 2008, when everything stopped abruptly.
In just one year, global annual sales, which in 2007 had surpassed 100 million, plummeted. What happened? Simply, the iPhone had made its appearance, eclipsing the rest of the phones. This collapse precipitated the divorce between Ericsson and Sony. The two companies went their separate ways since then, with quite mixed success, as we all know.
BQ
The Spanish technology company BQ It also tried its luck in the mobile telephony territory during the last decade. The first Aquaris smartphones They were released in 2013 and were marketed through different ranges until 2019.
These phones, which worked on the basis of Android, were designed in our country and manufactured in China. The response from the public was spectacular, especially that of certain models such as the M5 and M5.5, back in 2015. However, BQ's good image was soon to be tarnished after an endless string of malfunctions in their terminals. The continuous avalanche of complaints and returns meant that word of mouth, which is what had driven the brand's growth, also became an insurmountable problem.
Finally, it was the COVID-19 pandemic, with all the problems it brought to the world economy, that put an end to BQ's telephone adventure.
Mobile phone brands that have declined
There is yet another category of brands that still exist, but have come very close to following in the footsteps of Blackberry, BQ and other manufacturers into the abyss. However, the names we discuss below are distinguished by the fact that have been able to overcome great difficulties and, although things have not been the same, they still have something to say.
LG
The South Korean brand LG It began manufacturing mobile phones in 1996, but its real boom began fifteen years later, when it began marketing smartphones that ran on the Android operating system. We are talking about models as popular as the LG Eve, the LG InTouch Max, and in general LG G and LG X series phones.
Overtaken by the competition, at the beginning of 2021 LG announced its decision to no longer manufacture mobile phones. However, last year this idea was reconsidered and today we know that the brand is seriously studying its return to the market. We will be attentive to his next movements, if they finally occur.
HTC
HTC It could have been another of the mobile brands that disappeared. In fact, it is more than likely that he will end his days like this, something truly surprising, considering that for some years he was one of the reference names. Not in vain, this Taiwanese company was responsible for the design of some of the first touch and wireless mobile devices in the world.
However Being pioneers in something does not guarantee us eternal success. Until 2017, HTC resisted well against the advances of Samsung and other booming manufacturers, but then it began a slow and inexorable decline that has led this brand to be considered second-rate today.
Nokia
The Finnish company Nokia It has been present in the mobile phone market almost from the beginning. It was one of the developers of the GSM mobile standard, acquiring an almost hegemonic role during much of the 90s.
The launch of the Nokia 2110 in 1998, the first mobile phone capable of sending and receiving SMS, allowed it to overthrow Motorola and become the first manufacturer worldwide. Unfortunately, those responsible for the brand failed to detect or interpret market movements and the arrival of the iPhone marked the beginning of its decline.
It has to be said that Nokia continues at the foot of the canyon, trying to recover part of its requested splendor with new proposals. It seems that they have taken their renewal very seriously, which has even involved an aesthetic change to their official logo.
Motorola
Although many people ignore it, Motorola It is the brand that brought to market what is considered the first mobile phone in history. That experience helped him compete fiercely with Nokia for dominate the market in the 90s. The resistance of its terminals and the elegance of its designs were its strongest assets.
Motorola's crisis coincided with the arrival of Android, to which it did not adapt well. After some difficult years in which it seemed that the end was an irremediable fact, it seems that the brand has found its way again and in recent times it has pleasantly surprised us with really interesting proposals such as the Edge 40 Neo or Moto GPlay, among others.