Siemens celebrates production of 100-millionth Gigaset at Bocholt facility

Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC) today turned out its 100-millionth Gigaset. The device, a Siemens Gigaset SL370, rolled off the assembly line at the company’s Bocholt facility. The popular Gigaset models, which are now used in one of every two German households, have been produced in Bocholt since 1994, making Siemens the world’s leading supplier of cordless phones.
“As an SHC production and development center, Bocholt is the linchpin for Gigaset sales worldwide. Our production today of the 100-millionth Gigaset is conclusive proof of the success of our innovations, our high quality requirements and our team,” said Jochen Eickholt, head of Siemens’ SHC subsidiary.

Since 1993, when the DECT standard for cordless fixed-line telephony was introduced, cordless devices have maintained a leading position in the phone market. In 1996, Siemens brought out the first DECT phones featuring integrated answering machines and in 1999 the first cordless phones with handsfree talking. In 2001, the company launched the first model with fixed-line SMS service and in 2004 the first cordless phone to include a camera and an MMS capability. In 2006, Siemens introduced a hybrid device for fixed-line and VoIP Internet telephony. At the end of 2006, Bluetooth-enabled cordless phones hit the market to be followed in May 2007 by the Siemens Gigaset SL370, which is a technical and optical trendsetter and the winner of a design award even before its market launch.