Fujitsu-Siemens Dropping the Pocket Loox Line

Fujitsu-Siemens has decided to stop offering new Windows Mobile handhelds.

This company's Pocket Loox line has been around for many years, and although it isn't well-known in the U.S., Fujitsu-Siemens is an important Pocket PC maker in other parts of the world.

But it feels that the world market for mobile devices is changing, and traditional handhelds are giving way to smartphones. Company spokesperson Amy Flécher told ChannelPartner, "Handhelds and handhelds with push email will remain a niche market. In the future these services will be transferred to smartphones -- not our business."

What About Its Own Smartphones?

Fujitsu-Siemens offers a smartphone, the Pocket Loox T830, but decided it didn't want to continue to create similar devices in the future because of high development costs.

"The Pocket Loox T800 series is still a technological milestone in the wireless handheld landscape. The sales figures corresponded to our expectations. We grew in the financial years 2005 to 2006 over over 80 percent, and achieved a substantial increase of our market share in this segment. A further growth in the handheld market would have meant substantial investments in new technologies, development, and marketing for us," said Flécher.

The company has said it will withdraw from the world handheld market by the end of this year. However, it will continue to offer support for current devices.

In the future, Fujitsu-Siemens will concentrate its efforts on laptops and Tablet PCs.