Benefon
Encyclopedia
Salo, Finland
Salo is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Benefon specialises in the manufacture of mobile phones with inbuilt GPS navigation.
History
In 1928, the Nordell & Koskinen radio factory was founded in the Finnish town of Salo. The factory later changed its name to Salora and specialised in shortwave radios, televisions and radio-phones. In 1979, when Salora and NokiaNokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
founded a joint company named Mobira, the manufacturing of mobile phones started in Salo.
After some time working with in conjunction with Nokia, Jorma Nieminen (who was at the time heading Nokia's mobile phone section) and two colleagues parted ways with Nokia, and decided to start their own company, called Benefon.
Its first product, the Benefon Forte, operated on the NMT
Nordic Mobile Telephone
NMT is the first fully automatic cellular phone system...
-450 standard and remained on the market for eleven years. Engineered for tough operating conditions and equipped with a powerful antenna and transmitter, the phone found a niche operating on the edges of networks and remains used in shipping to this day, since higher-frequency GSM coverage does not extend out to the sea. The phone was manufactured for no less than eleven years until 2000.
Products
In 2000 Benefon released on the market a Dual SIM
Dual SIM
A dual SIM mobile phone is one which holds two SIM cards. Initially, dual-SIM adapters were made available to use in regular mobile phones to allow them to contain two SIMs, and to switch from one to the other as required. This combination is called a standby dual-SIM phone. The first Dual SIM...
phone Benefon Twin and Benefon Twin+. As Benefon has reached on agreement with Microsoft in 1999, it became possible to use Microsoft Mobile Explorer 2.0, which supported both HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
and Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
(WAP).
Benefon then changed its focus to GSM+GPS mobile telematics equipment, in response to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's MORE-project (Mobile Rescue Phone). The result of this project was an idea that was somewhat radical for the time: a mobile phone and a GPS navigator integrated in one product. Along these lines, the Benefon Esc! was launched in late 1999 and Benefon Track in 2000.
The Esc! was splashproof and featured a large, greyscale LCD. It allowed for users to load maps onto the phone, to trace their position and movement, and even to call or send their coordinates via SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
to a list of set numbers by setting an "Emergency Key". Interestingly, it also featured a "Friend Find" service, whereby users with Esc! handsets could track each other's locations directly on their handset display. In some markets this feature was implemented online.
Innovations
Benefon has been responsible for several "firsts" in the mobile telecommunications market. Significantly, the Benefon iO was the first GSM phone with T9T9 (predictive text)
T9, which stands for Text on 9 keys, is a patented predictive text technology for mobile phones, originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications....
predictive text input .
The Benefon Forte was the first mobile phone with an answering machine . The Benefon Beta was the first mobile to feature a clock . The Benefon Class was the first mobile phone with a cordless handset . The Benefon Esc!, as mentioned, was the first GSM/GPS navigating phone . The Benefon Smart was the first phone that came with different colour options . And the Benefon Twin, which was the first dual-band GSM phone with two SIM-card slots , allowed for easier use of two network operators.
Museums
Some Benefon models are exhibited in museums such as Communication History MuseumCommunication History Museum
Communications History Museum ia a museum supported by Teo LT AB, former AB Lietuvos Telekomas, in the Old Town of Kaunas, Lithuania. The building is an old merchant house, where were storages for grain to be exported. The building was taken in the use of the communications from 1830's in a form...
in Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
.
Future
In 2004, facing financial difficulties, Benefon entered bankruptcyBankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
protection and launched a re-organisation program. Benefon's efforts to create a niche market in GPS telematics
Telematics
Telematics typically is any integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, also known as ICT...
had met with some success (especially in commercial security markets) but had not been enough for the company to remain viable.
Benefon entered a financial partnership with Octagon Holdings LLC and other investors, involving tens of millions of euros of new investment. On June 21, 2005, Benefon CEO Tomi Raita announced that Benefon was out of bankruptcy protection, and that its re-organisation had successfully concluded.
Benefon started work on a new product line, and has since launched several new products under the "Twig" brand. The Twig Discovery features turn-by-turn navigation
Turn-by-turn navigation
Turn-by-turn navigation is a feature of some GPS navigation devices where directions for a selected route are continually presented to the user in the form of spoken and visual instructions. The system keeps the user up-to-date about the best route to the destination, and is often updated according...
combined with a GSM phone. It retains many features of the Benefon Esc!, including the "Friend Find" service and the Emergency Key.
The Twig Discovery Pro is similar to the Discovery but is aimed at commercial markets where workers may be at risk, and in addition to an Emergency Key, it allows workers and vehicles to be tracked online.
The Twig Locator is a small, shock-proof personal/commercial security device. It is capable of sending its location, bearing and speed and of sending back one-way audio. It can be hidden in a vehicle, and using its “geofencing” function, an automatic alarm transmission is activated if the vehicle moves beyond predetermined boundaries set by the user.
These products are already on the market, or making their way to market across Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.