Profit postponed for BenQ-Siemens combo

At nearly a year old, the joint venture between Taiwanese handset maker BenQ and Siemens' ex-handset division is still struggling, the company's latest set of results reveal.

BenQ's mobile unit posted another loss - the third in its short existence. According to previous predictions from BenQ, the company was scheduled to break even at the end of this year. That target has now been put back to mid-2007, which BenQ blames on the late arrival of some handsets and failure to shift some older, low-margin devices.

BenQ's chairman Kuen-Yao Lee said in a statement today the company is still backing the loss-making venture: "BenQ Mobile is and will be an important constituent of our company. We support the management in every possible way in order to become profitable again as soon as possible."

BenQ Mobile is now setting up a new programme to bring the phone unit more under the wing of its parent company, as well as boost its brand and speed up cost cutting.

Recent statistics from IDC found BenQ Mobile has moved into fifth place in the European handset market. The analyst house found that in the second quarter of this year, 2.9 million BenQ Mobile devices were sold and the handset maker now has seven per cent market share.

IDC noted: "The vendor faces substantial challenges in positioning high-end handsets in what is becoming a heavily populated segment."