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Ericsson Mobile Communications AB was a subsidiary of Ericsson, entirely focused on development of mobile phones (handsets). The major offices were located in Lund, Kumla, Raleigh, North Carolina and Lynchburg, Virginia. ==History== Under the command of Ericsson Radio Systems present CEO Lars Ramqvist, a new joint venture company was formed together with General Electric July 1, 1989, under the name Ericsson GE Mobile Communications. The company consisted of all mobile phone activity of both companies in Sweden and USA. Ericsson owned 60% of the company, and General Electric owned 40%. In this fusion GE contributed, among other things, a factory of some 1,600 employees in Lynchburg, Virginia. Ericsson Radio Systems former CEO Åke Lundqvist moved to the USA as CEO for the new company, which also controlled the mobile handset activities in Kumla and the research facility in Lund.〔 〕 Mobile telephony, at this time, constituted 14% of the billing in the business unit for radio communications at Ericsson. In 1990 Ericsson GE Mobile Communications, at the initiative of Åke Lundkvist, opened a new office for research and development in Research Triangle Park, a science park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The purpose of this initiative was to divide research and development from pure manufacturing, to mirror the split between Kumla and Lund in Sweden. The activity in Ericsson GE Mobile Communications was characterized by severe cooperation problems between the two companies, and inability to break into the U.S. market for mobile phones.〔 〕 In the beginning of 1992 Ericsson purchased another 20% of the joint venture and Ericsson GE Mobile Communications was owned to 80% by Ericsson. At the end of 1993 General Electric left the board for the joint venture.〔 〕 Eventually, on April 1, 1998, General Electric used a bail-out sell clause in the contract with Ericsson and sold its remaining last part of the joint venture back to Ericsson, which thereby became the sole owner of the company. In 1994 mobile telephony made up 85% of the activities in the Ericsson business unit for Radio Systems and this business unit increased its billing for activities including systems (base stations) and terminals (handsets) with 73%. Mobile telephony was now regarded a core product,〔 and March 1, 1994, Johan Siberg assumed the role as CEO for the common company Ericsson GE Mobile Communications which simultaneously changed its name to Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (ECS) and created a wholly owned subsidiary with its main office in Sweden.〔 In 1994 a side track activity with the short distance radio technology Bluetooth was initiated within the company, and in 1997 ECS joined forces with Intel in this activity. In 1998 the Bluetooth Special Interest Group was created in cooperation with Intel, IBM, Nokia and Toshiba, and in 2000 a corporate spin-off named Ericsson Technology Licensing was created to host the technology, and the first actual product, a Bluetooth headset, reached the market.〔 〕 Growth and volumes in ECS increased rapidly and the first years all focus was on quickly ramping up the production, which was met with success. In 1998 the company generated a profit of 13 billion SEK. However already in 1999 the company encountered problems in the consumer market, after the main competitor Nokia had started to use design as a weapon to gain market shares. Nokia 3210 has been described as an especially troublesome product, as it lacked an external antenna. Ericsson viewed this as a technically inferior construction, but the consumers chose this design direction anyway. At the same time, Nokia started to compete by economies of scale and could thus bring down the price on components. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ericsson Mobile Communications」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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