Infineon Multimedia Platform Solution is Selected for Panasonic New UMTS Handsets

Feb 14, 2006 | Market News

Munich, Germany – February 14, 2006 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today announced that Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. has chosen Infineon as supplier of the reference design platforms for its new 3G mobile handsets. Infineon’s platform MP-EU will be used in the future UMTS  mobile phones of Panasonic. Haruo Suzuki, CTO, Director, Member of the Board, Panasonic Mobile Communication, said: ”We believe Infineon's MP-EU platform is a cost-competitive solution for mid-to-low range UMTS handsets, which will enable us to leverage our current GSM assets”. At present, the MP-EU is the industry’s highest integrated phone platform supporting UMTS, EDGE and GSM/GPRS cellular standards enabling fancy handset designs uncommon these days. Panasonic intends to bring its 3G mobile phone to the market within the year 2006.

“All over the world, Japan is known for its pioneering role implementing state-of-the-art communication technologies in consumer devices. Infineon is proud to be part of the team to bring an avant-garde UMTS mobile phone offering high ease-of-use to life,” said Clemens Jargon, Vice President Communication Solutions Business Group and General Manager of the Feature Phone Business Unit at Infineon. “Our broad system integration know-how, dual-mode protocol stack software and competency in reference design platforms result in solutions of highly favorable price-performance ratio. The scalable MP-EU supports to speedily introduce a variety of UMTS models all based on the same core architecture.” 

Market research firm Strategy Analytics expects the number of UMTS mobile phones sold to grow from about 45 million in the year 2005 to approximately 412 million in 2010, amounting for an annual growth rate of about 55 percent over the next five years.

Technical information on MP-EU platform

UMTS phones incorporating Infineon’s platform MP-EU provide extensive mobile phone multimedia functionality, such as video streaming and video telephony, compliant with the requirements in Europe, Asia, Japan and North America. The MP-EU platform supports all frequency bands for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and all six frequency bands specified for UMTS. It provides a broad variety of connectivity technologies, such as Bluetooth, Assisted GPS and WLAN.

According to market experts, PMC ranks among the leading mobile handset manufacturers in Japan holding a 20 percent to 30 percent market share for mobile phones in 2005. 

For further information on Infineon’s product portfolio for communication solutions, please see www.infineon.com/wireless.

About Panasonic Mobile Communications

Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., whose headquarters are based in Yokohama, Japan, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of mobile communications products.  As one of the main business domains for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand digital electronics, Panasonic has been developing cutting edge technologies since its establishment in 1958, including the world's first 3G video handset for the Japanese market in 2001.  Panasonic is committed in providing added-value solutions to end-users through its mobile communication products. For more information, please visit www.panasonic.co.jp/pmc/en.

Glossary

UMTS      Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
EDGE     Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
GSM        Global System for Mobile Communications
GPRS     General Packet Radio Service

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multimarket sectors, for applications in communication, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo.  In fiscal year 2005 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 6.76 billion with about 36,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Information Number

INFCOM200602.038