Siemens Cellular Handsets – Potential Risk To Users

After a potentially harmful glitch was discovered in the Siemens Series 65 cell phones, several vendors in Asia and Europe stopped selling the cellular handsets to consumers. It appears that when the battery charge is low, the cellular handsets launch into their battery-shutdown warning tune, but at such a high volume that the piercing noise is not only surprising, but also potentially harmful to a cellular users.

When users have the cell handset close to their ear when the warning melody plays, there is a risk of damage from the loud volume. Siemens offers a quick, short-term fix which involves asking users to deactivate the warning melody on the cellular handsets. The long-term solution is new software, which Siemens already has in place and the first shipment of Series 65 cell phones to the United States, scheduled for this fall will have the new software installed.

The affected handsets include the C65, CX65, M65, S65, SL65 as well as variations such as the CV65, CT65, CXV65 and CXT65. Although Siemens did not actually recall the cellular handsets, several vendors still chose to discontinue sales. In Holland, vendors stopped sales of the Series 65 cellular handsets and allowed customers to trade in the handsets for a different phone. German vendors pulled the handsets from shelves for a few days to install the software update provided by Siemens. In Ireland, nationwide sales were also halted temporarily.

Siemens, a German cellular company, has reported that the problems with the Series 65 handsets would hurt its fourth quarter revenue. Morgan Stanley estimated the fourth quarter loss to Siemens could be as high as 62 million Euro, or more than 74 million dollars.

Also see; cell phone safety.

Author Notes:

Jack Adams contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.cell-phones-n-plans.com. A cell phone industry resource that features service plan comparisons, cellular phone reviews and articles.