KVH Honored With Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award for Automotive Satellite TV
MIDDLETOWN, R.I.--Jan. 3, 2005--| Award Cites KVH's Successful Development, Introduction, and Sales of Low-profile TracVision A5 Satellite TV Antenna |
KVH Industries, Inc., was honored with the first-ever Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership in the North American automotive satellite television market. The award, given by Frost & Sullivan, a leading independent global growth consulting company, recognizes KVH's "technical and marketing competencies that have resulted in the successful development and introduction of the ultra-low profile TracVision(R) A5 satellite antenna and receiver system," in addition to the company's successful efforts to establish a national retail network and expand its strategic relationship with DIRECTV, Inc., to encompass automotive applications.
"KVH Industries has exhibited leadership in terms of innovation, product development and entrepreneurship to enter and develop the very nascent mobile satellite television market," said Sandeep Kar, an industry analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "Frost & Sullivan recognizes KVH Industries' leadership in developing and driving the North American automotive satellite television system market, and expects KVH to maintain its leadership position in the market for the foreseeable future."
The Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award is given to companies that have exhibited leadership through the identification of market challenges and a corresponding development and implementation of a successful market strategy. In its announcement, Frost & Sullivan cited several factors that contributed to KVH's market leadership, including: the advantage of being the first mover in the market; establishing brand equity through early market leadership; recognition of its product's strengths by automakers; the strategic relationship and marketing support from DIRECTV; and the company's overall market strategy of seeking to penetrate the original equipment market through leadership in the aftermarket.
Commenting on the award, Martin Kits van Heyningen, president and chief executive officer of KVH Industries said, "We are extremely pleased that Frost & Sullivan has recognized KVH as the pioneer of automotive mobile satellite television. Several years ago, we anticipated that the growing popularity of video screens in cars could potentially drive a corresponding demand for live TV on these screens. Building on our experience producing almost 75,000 mobile satellite antennas for the marine and RV markets, we aggressively pursued the emerging automotive opportunity. This prestigious award recognizes our success to date in meeting that demand as well as KVH's longtime reputation as a leading provider of innovative mobile satellite communications products."
The TracVision A5, which began shipping to consumers in September 2003, has opened the automotive video market to mobile DIRECTV(R) service with KVH's hybrid phased-array antenna technology (patents pending). TracVision A5 is practical and affordable for use aboard an SUV, minivan, or other passenger vehicle. The system works exclusively with the DIRECTV TOTAL CHOICE(R) MOBILE programming package and is the only product authorized by DIRECTV to provide this service in automobiles.
The Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award in the North American automotive satellite television market is the latest in a series of awards bestowed upon KVH. The TracVision A5 recently received the General Motors 2004 Innovative Product Award and was named a finalist for the prestigious 2005 Automotive News PACE Award. Additionally, KVH's line of marine TracVision products have won the National Marine Electronics Association "Best Product" Award for the past seven consecutive years. Details regarding KVH's entire line of TracVision products are available at http://www.tracvision.com.
Note to editors: High-resolution images of the TracVision A5 system are available for download and editorial use at http://www.kvh.com/mediasupport.
Frost & Sullivan (www.frost.com), a global growth consulting company founded in 1961, partners with clients to create value through innovative growth strategies. The foundation of this partnership approach is its Growth Partnership Services platform, whereby the organization provides industry research, marketing strategies, consulting, and training to its clients to help grow their business. A key benefit that Frost & Sullivan brings to its clients is a global perspective on a broad range of industries, markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. With a client list that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, as well as the investment community, Frost & Sullivan has evolved into one of the premier growth consulting companies in the world.
KVH Industries, Inc., is the leader in designing and manufacturing satellite television antennas for mobile applications on land or sea. More customers use mobile TracVision antennas on their boats, RVs, trucks, buses, and automobiles than any other competing product. An ISO 9001-certified company, KVH has headquarters in Middletown, Rhode Island, with a fiber optic and military navigation product manufacturing facility in Tinley Park, Illinois, and a European sales, marketing, and support office in Kokkedal, Denmark.