Ericsson & Mannesmann VDO in strategic alliance for dev. of in-car infotainment

Ericsson and Mannesmann VDO in strategic alliance for development of in-car infotainment solutions Ericsson Mobile Communications AB and Mannesmann VDO AG have announced their plans for a strategic alliance. The two companies will closely cooperate in developing integrated in-car communication and information systems and their applications. The cooperation uniquely bundles know-how in all elements of car infotainment - the merger of in-car navigation, communication, telematics and entertainment. Enormous expansion rates are predicted for the car infotainment market. More than ten million mobile terminal modules are expected to be built into cars by the year 2003 in the EU and the US alone. The alliance brings together Mannesmann VDO's technological capabilities as system supplier with Ericsson's expertise in mobile communication technologies. Bluetooth, as an example, is a wireless local area network developed by Ericsson. It permits wireless transmission of data between mobile telephones, portable computers and other electronic equipment, which makes it ideal for in-car applications. Another example of possible applications in the car environment would be traffic information and Internet services provided over WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). Ericsson played a leading role in developing WAP, a de facto standard for mobile data communication. This protocol allows fast transmission of Internet content to wireless devices. "Infotainment and communication to and from the car will grow rapidly," said Günter Hauptmann, Member of Executive Board of Mannesmann VDO. "Teaming up with Ericsson ensures that we will take a large proportion of this promising market. It will strengthen our position as the world's leading supplier of integrated in-car communication and information systems." "At Ericsson we have a vision that people should be able to communicate whenever and wherever," says Jan Ahrenbring, Vice President Marketing and Communications at Ericsson Mobile Communications. "To implement our communications solutions in the automotive environment we feel it is important to team up with suppliers who know the automotive industry so we can concentrate on our core competence, which is communication." Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Jan Ahrenbring, Vice President Marketing and Communications Ericsson Mobile Communications AB Phone: +46 8 764 1460, +46 70 590 9900 Peter Bodor, Press Officer, Consumer Products Phone: +46 8 404 2423, +46 70 328 2423 E-mail: peter.bodor@ecs.ericsson.se About Mannesmann Mannesmann VDO is part of the Mannesmann group of companies and develops and manufactures information, automatic controls and fuel systems for the original equipment and aftermarkets. Mannesmann VDO is the world's leader for fully integrated car information systems and automotive instrumentation, Europe's number one for in-car navigation systems, original equipment car radios and fuel supply units. The company enhances the Mannesmann group's broad traffic telematics activities with telematics units. 1998 sales of the group amounted to 3.3 billion Euro, half of which was generated outside Germany. Mannesmann VDO employs worldwide almost 25,000 people. About Bluetooth The Bluetooth technology is set to revolutionize the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wired connections. It is a specification for a small form-factor, low-cost radio solution providing links between mobile computers, mobile phones and other portable handheld devices and connectivity to the Internet. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), consisting of leaders in the telecommunications and computing industries is driving development of the technology and bringing it to market. The group includes founding members Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba, and more than 1000 other companies. Further information can be found on: www.bluetooth.com or www.ericsson.com/bluetooth About WAP To promote access of the Internet using a mobile phone, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Unwired Planet (now renamed Phone.com) have established the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum. The general objective of the forum is to enable the wireless industry and content developers to provide compatible products and services across a wide variety of platforms. The specific goal of the WAP Forum is to create a global wireless Internet protocol for small screen mobile terminals that are unable to display HTML- based Web pages. Further information can be found at http://wapforum.org. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/08/19990908BIT00150/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/08/19990908BIT00150/bit0002.pdf