'No brand' firms can save Europe phone market
Years after ceding the mobile handset market to the likes of Samsung and Apple, Europeans are getting back in the game - but they're not named Nokia, Ericsson, or Siemens.
A slew of startups such as France's Wiko and Spain's BQ have been gaining ground with smartphones that cost less than half as much as the flagship offerings of Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc. As the newcomers grow in their home markets, they're plotting international expansion to win a larger share of Western Europe's $62 billion in annual smartphone sales.
"The keys are technology, quality, design and price, and let the client decide," David Garcia, Wiko's international business development director, said at the company's modest stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "We have grown very fast."
