Parrot (Paris:PARRO), one of the world-leading innovators in wireless peripherals for the mobile phone, will look back on 2006 and see it as the year that set the stage for dramatic growth in the U.S.
"In 2006, we focused on partnering with key distributors and leading retailers in the U.S. market. Given that strong foundation, we're looking forward to a banner year in 2007, says Ed Valdez, president and COO of Parrot, Inc., the company's North America subsidiary.
The company's strategy included finding the industry leaders who could see the tremendous future that Bluetooth® has and chose to invest in it. Industry reports show that there are about 1 billion Bluetooth products on the market now, and that number is expected to double by 2010.
"The rapid adoption of Bluetooth has surprised a lot people, especially in the U.S. market where we've been slower to utilize this technology than Europe or Asia, says Valdez. "Nevertheless, Bluetooth adoption is dramatically outpacing the historical adoption of other technologies. For instance, it took 22 years for cell phones to reach 1 billion subscribers, 12 years for the Internet to do the same and only six years for Bluetooth products to reach the 1 billion mark. That milestone has created a positive inflection point for Parrot and its reseller partners for this year and beyond.
In 2006, Parrot signed distributors and retailers across the U.S., giving it wide geographic coverage. Among the major distributor agreements in the east were with TESSCO, M. Rothman, and H.L. Dallas; in the Midwest, AM Distributors, Brightpoint and Brightstar; in the southeast, L.K. Distributors and Premier Marketing; in the south central Petra, PCI and Mid-States; and in the west, Waveblue (which handles California) and Seattle Electronics.
Similarly, dozens of top retailers and chains also signed with Parrot including Tweeter in Boston; Datavision in New York City; Abt Electronics in Chicago; and Wireless Giant, ABC/Mickey Shorr and Wireless Toyz in the north central region. In the West, Car Toys, Ultimate Electronics, and Audio Express joined the Parrot family of retailers.
A number of top consumer electronics e-tailers and catalogers also signed on including MobilePlanet, TigerDirect and Crutchfield.
Parrot offers the broadest portfolio of Bluetooth-enabled products available and is the world's leading manufacturer of installed hands-free car kits. Beyond the award-winning line of car kits sold in 2006, Parrot introduced new product lines for home and office including the PHOTO VIEWER (3.5 inch) and Parrot SOUND SYSTEM. At the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Parrot will continue its rapid pace of new product launches every few months with the introduction of its new Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7 and the Parrot CONFERENCE speakerphone.
A number of other new devices for home and auto are planned for introduction throughout the year.
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Portable Units | Professionally installed car kits | |
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HOME & OFFICE PRODUCTS | ||
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ABOUT PARROT
Founded in 1994, Parrot has rapidly established itself as a pivotal global player for wireless mobile telephone accessories. Drawing on its tried-and-tested expertise on voice recognition and signal processing technologies, Parrot was one of the very first companies to produce Bluetooth®-based wireless hands free car kits, having identified this standard's vast potential as early as 1999. In the first half of 2006, Parrot sold more than 1 million units.
Determined to accompany the mobile telephone's irresistible breakthrough into our day-to-day lives, Parrot has developed two new products in 2006: the Parrot PHOTO VIEWER, an LCD photo frame designed to display photos transmitted from a mobile telephone via Bluetooth, and the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM, a wireless hi-fi system with speakers linked up to one another using Bluetooth.
Today, Parrot truly has a major international focus: 87% of its sales are generated outside of France, and a large percentage of its production is outsourced to carefully selected partners, enabling it to achieve the best possible level of quality and responsiveness. Parrot is now particularly well positioned to capitalize on the bright future opening up for mobile telephone devices. Parrot has achieved strong growth in its consolidated revenues, up from 80.9 million euros pro forma in 2005 to 116.4 million euros in the first 9 months of 2006.
www.parrotcorp.com Euronext Paris " Eurolist, Compartiment B : FR0004038263 " PARRO
The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Parrot S.A. is under license. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners.