KAGA ELECTRONICS and Open Interface Partner to Bring Automotive Bluetooth® Solutions to the Market

KAGA ELECTRONICS develops a Bluetooth cell phone module using the Open Interface BLUEmagic 3.0 embedded Bluetooth protocol stack, bringing Bluetooth wireless technology solutions for telematics to the mass market. KAGA ELECTRONICS will distribute its Bluetooth cell phone module with the Open Interface BLUEmagic 3.0 embedded Bluetooth protocol stack, providing hands-free cellular phone functionality compliant with the Car Communication Application Promotion (CCAP) standard.

Amsterdam, Holland (PRWEB) June 18, 2003 - KAGA ELECTRONICS, a leading electronics trading company and provider of systems integration, design and distribution services for the electronics industry, and Open Interface, a leading provider of Bluetooth software and services, today announced the availability of a Bluetooth telematics product. KAGA ELECTRONICS will market this cell phone module under its Taxan brand name. Customers will be able to purchase the Taxan hands-free cellular phone module compliant with the Bluetooth Hands-Free Profile and the Car Communication Application Promotion (CCAP) standards later this summer. In order to address the growing demand for Bluetooth products, KAGA ELECTRONICS and Open Interface have formed a strategic partnership to develop and deploy other Bluetooth solutions for the mass market.

KAGA ELECTRONICS and Open Interface have undertaken development efforts to incorporate BLUEmagic 3.0 software into this aftermarket cell phone module and to expand the customer base for cell phone applications. The Car Communication Application Promotion (CCAP) standard addresses concerns that many developers of Bluetooth devices have about Car Workgroup profile interoperability. The Bluetooth specifications for these profiles are ambiguous, thus risking device interoperability. CCAP proposes a more rigorous set of application guidelines for Bluetooth hands-free implementations that enhance user convenience and interoperability between handheld devices in the automobile. CCAP also assists developers in correctly implementing the Hands-Free Profile, including recommended parameter values, sequence charts, options usage, and new use case scenarios not covered by the existing Hands-Free Profile. CCAP promoters include Denso Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., NTT DoCoMo Inc., Toshiba Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Nissan Motor Corporation.

About the product

KAGA ELECTRONICS has ported the BLUEmagic 3.0 Hands-Free Profile audio gateway and hands-free device software and developed a hands-free application for its Bluetooth cell phone module. The hands-free device is designed to establish a SCO connection on the system running the BLUEmagic 3.0 profiles and protocol stack for voice communications. Once a voice-controlled session is established via the SCO-enabled audio gateway, a command is sent to an audio gateway in the car to initiate a hands-free call. When the call has ended, the remote cell phone connection is terminated and the audio gateway enters into a low-power mode awaiting the next hands-free phone call.

"Open Interface is excited to be working with KAGA ELECTRONICS to incorporate the BLUEmagic 3.0 embedded Bluetooth protocol stack on this Bluetooth cell phone module to enable CCAP-based Hands-Free Profile implementation in the automobile. Customers will be able to add Bluetooth capabilities to their legacy cell phones easily, enabling true hands-free convenience for car-based cell phone calls. The considerable experience of both KAGA ELECTRONICS and Open Interface in the Bluetooth market, as established by the development of one of the earliest CCAP implementations available, can be leveraged by our customers," said Open Interface Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Hiroshi Onaka.

About KAGA ELECTRONICS Co., LTD.

Established in 1968, KAGA ELECTRONICS is an electronics trading company located in Tokyo with 9,600 million yen in capital. The company is publicly held and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. KAGA ELECTRONICS and its 30 subsidiaries, 22 of which are located outside of Japan, are focused on a wide range of businesses centered on the electronics industry, ranging from the sale of electronic components, semiconductors and information technology products to the design and manufacture of electronics and information technology products. KAGA ELECTRONICS combines the strength of its subsidiary firms to supply products and high levels of service to over 7,000 clients worldwide. The company grossed 163,250 million yen ($1.358 billion US dollars) in revenue at the end of the 2002 fiscal year.

The KAGA ELECTRONICS website can be accessed at www.taxan.co.jp

About Open Interface

Open Interface North America, Inc. is an associate member of the Bluetooth SIG and has a complete qualified Bluetooth v1.1 protocol stack, as well as software development tools for OEMs and Bluetooth application developers. Open Interface was one of the first companies to develop and introduce Bluetooth wireless technology to the Japanese market and was the first company to develop an embedded Bluetooth protocol stack from the ground up.

The Open Interface website can be accessed at www.oi-us.com

CONTACTS

Pierre Bedard, Operations Manager
Open Interface North America, Inc.
206-315-5570
pierre.bedard@openinterface.com

BLUEmagic is a trademark of Open Interface.

Bluetooth is a registered trademark of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Inc. and is used under license.
All other product and company names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.