Press and News - 23.11.2007

u-blox opens Tokyo office

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Thalwil, Switzerland – November 23, 2007 – u-blox, the leading Swiss provider of GPS chips, modules and services, today said it has opened offices in Tokyo, Japan.

u-blox has been operating in Japan since 2004 through its distribution partners Avnet Japan Co., Ltd., Amtechs Corporation and GNSS Technologies, Inc. However, u-blox determined it was necessary to open a Japanese branch following unprecedented growth in the GPS industry over the past few years and particularly strong demand across Asia, which now accounts for about a third of the company's sales.

Tesshu Naka, who heads u-blox' Japan office, said: "Developing our presence in Tokyo, which will include the recruitment of additional staff, will enable u-blox Japan to provide Japanese customers with highly quality local support, which will improve time to market and the quality of support we can offer."

Japan and Asia are increasingly important markets for the GPS industry. Japan's recently introduced E-110/119 emergency caller laws make it mandatory for all mobile phones to include GPS technology. The development of smaller, lower power and cheaper GPS receivers, and new developments in indoor positioning technologies is driving the integration of GPS technology into handheld devices, which in turn is pushing demand for high-quality GPS modules, chips and positioning services worldwide. Japan's automotive industry is also leading the worldwide trend to dashboard integrated car navigation systems and telematics applications.

Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO, expects that the company's leading edge technology and strong emphasis on customer service is particularly well suited to the demand of Japanese clients. "Our high performance u-blox 5 GPS and GALILEO 50-channel positioning engine, featuring an acquisition performance of less than one second and -160 dBm SuperSense® indoor positioning technology, has opened new avenues for innovative positioning-related products and services," he said. "We are confident that Japanese automotive and consumer device design companies will benefit from u-blox 5 and from the local support our new offices in Tokyo will provide".

Contact details

Thomas Seiler, Chief Executive Officer
phone: +41 (44) 722 74 44

Jean Pierre Wyss, Chief Financial Officer
phone: +41 (44) 722 74 44

About u-blox Holding AG

u-blox develops leading positioning technology, products and services based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), including GPS and GALILEO, for the automotive and mobile terminal communications markets as well as for high precision infrastructure applications.

u-blox was founded in 1997 by a former research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Since its incorporation, u-blox has evolved from a small engineering company to a global provider of integrated positioning solutions. The company’s main operations are based in Thalwil in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland, where its research and development, European sales and administrative functions are located. Furthermore, u-blox has subsidiaries dedicated to sales and customer services in the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong and additional representative offices in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

In fiscal year 2006, u-blox generated sales of CHF 54.4 million and a net profit of CHF 7.4 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2007 the company recorded sales of CHF 39.4 million, representing a growth rate of 69% compared to the same period last year. As of June 30, 2007 u-blox had 69 employees, of which 48 are located in Switzerland.

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Further Information

Press Releases 2007

Press Release (PDF Format)

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