HARMAN and Magneti Marelli Selected to Provide Next Generation Infotainment System

Published on Monday, 28 June 2010 08:43 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

STAMFORD, Conn.-( Business Wire )-

HARMAN, the premium audio and infotainment group (NYSE: HAR), announced today that it has been selected by BMW AG, in partnership with global automotive supplier Magneti Marelli, to provide the next generation entry-level infotainment system for its luxury vehicle platforms. The new multimedia-driven system will offer BMW customers a sophisticated set of features including navigation, brilliant graphics, Internet access and wired or wireless connectivity never before available in entry-level systems. An embedded flash memory will provide dynamic navigation data which may be updated as required for current access to routes and road information.

The new infotainment system will blend open-platform technology from Magneti Marelli with Harman connectivity and mobile office expertise to enable a broad range of premium in-vehicle infotainment and connectivity applications. System features will include iSpeech, wireless connectivity, mobile office, navigation, and advanced telematics. Harman will produce and deliver the infotainment modules for BMW vehicles in the Asian markets and Magneti Marelli will serve the European markets. This marks the first time such a system has been developed for global application, with multiple-language speech and navigation software including a Chinese language navigation module for the high-growth Asia markets.

“We are delighted to expand our long-term partnership with BMW,” said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman’s Chairman, President and CEO. “This new award complements our previously-announced premium infotainment system at BMW and will expand the Harman offering to a larger audience of customers. We look forward to delighting new customers with this pioneering introduction to the world of full-featured infotainment.”

The new system will leverage Harman’s deep expertise in automotive infotainment applications including tuner technology, navigation, speech recognition, online and device connectivity as well as personal Internet radio functionality. The platform will feature a compact, cost-competitive computing solution built on the NVIDIA® system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology for scalable microprocessor power and graphic performance.

Magneti Marelli is a global automotive supplier, headquartered in Italy, that designs and produces advanced systems and components for the automotive industry. The company has a presence in 18 countries, about 32,000 employees and a turnover of 4.5 billion Euros in 2009.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity® ,JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,000 people across Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of 3.2 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2010. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.

HARMANBrad A. Hoffman, 203-328-3500Vice President, Corporate This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.