American Honda Signs Letter of Intent with Microvision to Purchase 3,800 Nomad Augmented Vision Systems
BOTHELL, Wash.--July 31, 2003--| Automaker to distribute wearable information tool to dealer technicians |
Microvision, Inc. , today announced that American Honda Motor Company, Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase 3,800 Nomad Systems with shipments to begin in January 2004, following Microvision's planned release of a next generation Nomad System later this year.
Honda intends to distribute the Nomad Expert Technician Systems to its Honda and Acura dealers and to independent repair shops in North America. The letter of intent follows the successful results of a trial in late April with the Nomad System at American Honda's training facility in Torrance, CA in which technicians averaged an impressive 39% gain in efficiency ( http://www.microvision.com/hondatrial ). Honda's intent to purchase identifies several conditions including a scheduled test of the enhanced Nomad product at Honda's training facilities in late August.
"Honda's mission is to provide prompt, high quality service to our customers," stated Allan Snow, manager of service information for American Honda. "We expect the Nomad Expert Technician System to provide us with a unique and powerful information tool that we believe can help our service technicians eliminate mistakes, decrease turnaround time, and improve customer satisfaction throughout our network of dealer service centers. We've invested in a number of digitized information solutions during the last several years and we believe that once our dealers and service technicians realize how the Nomad System can be easily integrated into our existing infrastructure to boost their productivity even further, the tool will become very popular.
"Time is money for technicians. The more they get done, the more they can earn. We expect that every technician will want his own Nomad System, whether they purchase it outright or take advantage of our attractive leasing options," concluded Snow.
American Honda supplies tools and equipment to approximately 1,300 Honda and Acura dealers employing about 18,000 Honda certified technicians plus another 50,000 technicians at independent Honda-authorized repair shops in North America. Microvision says that it estimates that there are 590,000 service technicians employed at automotive dealerships and independent repair garages throughout North America and nearly 1.4 million worldwide.
"Automotive maintenance is potentially an enormous market and Microvision has an opportunity to establish the Nomad System as a standard within the category," offered Bruce Ridley, Microvision's marketing manager for industrial and automotive products. "This market has all the right ingredients for a Nomad-based solution: Automakers are faced with productivity and quality challenges, a high percentage of their maintenance information has been fully digitized, and many have put in place information systems that can immediately be enhanced by Nomad's 'hands-free' functionality."
"We are pleased to be working with American Honda, an acknowledged leader in quality and service," commented CEO Rick Rutkowski. "There's every indication that 2004 could be the beginning of a significant market for the Nomad System, and we can't wait to start making deliveries of this powerful new product."
The Nomad Expert Technician System will be an information tool consisting of a wearable display and integrated wireless computer package that provides wireless access to test data and repair information for automotive and other service technicians. The information is superimposed directly on their vision at the point of task, head-up and hands-free.
Microvision has not released final pricing for the next generation Nomad System, but indicated that a complete system, depending on the variety of available options and accessories is expected to have an MSRP of between $3,500-$4,000.
About Microvision: http://www.microvision.com/
Headquartered in Bothell, Wash., Microvision, Inc. is a world leader in the development of high resolution displays and imaging systems based on the company's proprietary silicon micromirror technology. The company's technology has applications in a broad range of military, medical, industrial, professional and consumer products.
Microvision has been working with Canon, BMW, the Electronics Research Lab of Volkswagen of America, Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon Endo Surgery subsidiary, Honda and others to develop a number of display and image capture product applications based on its proprietary scanned beam technology.
Forward Looking Statement
Certain statements contained in this release, including those relating to release of new products and systems, product applications, and size and timing of potential market opportunities, as well as statements containing words like "intends," "believe," "expect," "estimates," "will" and other similar expressions, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: market acceptance of our technologies and products; our ability to obtain financing; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards and to develop partnership opportunities; the timing of commercial product launches; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including in its Annual Report on 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
