Grundig launches cellphone business with Vitelcom

We don't associate the Grundig name with cellphones, but it looks like someone at the company has decided that they need to do more than make old-school shortwave radios (OK, before all you Europeans start to flame us, we know they make a lot more than that; but they've got zero brand presence in the U.S., other than for the aforementioned radios). Their new division, Grundig Mobile, has rolled out a half-dozen cellphones, and plans to start marketing them in Spain, France and Germany. The phones are rebranded models made by the Spanish company Vitelcom, which signed a licensing agreement with Grundig in January. The phones — which include a couple of sliders, a cameraphone with built-in FM radio and two i-mode models — won't rock anyone's world, but they'll certainly give Grundig a jump-start in the cellphone market, and help Vitelcom build a business that isn't haunted by their recently settled patent dispute with Nokia.