SAN DIEGO and SHANGHAI, China, May 22, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- In a move toward further enhancing its client services in Asia Pacific, Ethertronics, a leading provider of standard and customized embedded antenna solutions for wideband and multi-band wireless devices, today announced that its subsidiary, Ethertronics (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., has initiated production in Jiangsu province outside Shanghai. Ethertronics' new China manufacturing facility expands its Asia Pacific regional footprint and complements both its Korean manufacturing center and China design center located in nearby Shanghai.
Located in the Kunshan German Industrial Park (GIP), the Ethertronics facility will initially focus on supply chain management, final assembly, testing and quality control for various antenna products. Ethertronics expects to produce more than 10 million units in 2007 at this facility with incremental capacity rising five-fold over the next year.
"Opening this manufacturing facility is a natural progression for Ethertronics as we continue to acquire business with a number of Chinese manufacturers who are integrating our embedded Isolated Magnetic Dipole (IMD) antennas into their handsets," said Jeffrey Crosby, President and CEO of Ethertronics. "Already, we are working with top handset manufacturers such as Lenovo and Amoi, who have been utilizing Ethertronics' existing China design center for more than three years. Expanding our Chinese manufacturing capabilities augments our in-region design services, as we are now able to provide our customers -- both ODM and OEM brands -- a full spectrum of products and services. These capabilities range from design of custom embedded antennas, implementation assistance for standard products, quick delivery of soft-tooled prototypes, ramp-up to higher production volumes and localized customer support, all of which are adhering to Ethertronics' highest standards of quality assurance."
According to a recently published report from Piper Jaffray Investment Research on the Global Wireless Handset Market, analysts have forecasted that Chinese manufacturers such as Amoi, CECT, Lenovo and TCL, all of to whom Ethertronics provides its embedded antenna solutions, will continue to gain marketshare in the growing Chinese domestic market.
Crosby continued, "As more clients become familiar with the advantages of our IMD antenna technology, our design wins and production volumes keep increasing, enabling us to grow our in-region presence. Our leading-edge technology coupled with outstanding customer service enables Ethertronics to excel at supporting all of our customers' requirements; from best technical performance, to high-volume production, to logistics support for on-time deliveries."
In addition to China, Ethertronics operates design centers and/or high-volume manufacturing facilities in the United States, Korea and Taiwan. Ethertronics' antennas have been designed into many global manufacturers' handsets, including Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Symbol, as well as an innovative GPS watch from Casio and Bluetooth modules for HP notebook computers. In 2006 alone, Ethertronics attained more than 75 design wins, and produced more than 25 million embedded antennas.
About Ethertronics
Ethertronics designs and manufactures high-performance standard and customized embedded antenna solutions for wideband and multi-band wireless devices. Ethertronics' leading-edge antenna product lines have been selected by major customers to support a wide range of applications including cellular, UMTS, WiFi, WiMAX, Bluetooth, GPS, MediaFLO and DVB-H among others. The company's patented Isolated Magnetic Dipole(tm) (IMD) technology enables wireless equipment manufacturers to tune both the antenna and antenna feed-line independent of each other, allowing for smaller size, flexibility in design implementation, shortened design cycle and higher overall performance, while simultaneously meeting and improving upon standard safety emission requirements. The U.S.-headquartered company maintains a global network of design centers and low-cost, high-volume manufacturing operations. For more information about Ethertronics, visit the company's Website at: www.ethertronics.com.
Ethertronics, the Ethertronics logo, shaping antenna technology, Isolated Magnetic Dipole and IMD are trademarks of Ethertronics. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.