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October 2, 2007 4:06 PM PDT

JVC, Kenwood partner on car tech development

by Kevin Massy
Two of the biggest names in the aftermarket car tech world joined forces this week as Kenwood and JVC (known as Victor Co in Japan) announced they had set up a joint company to develop technologies for car electronics and home audio equipment. The new entity, called J&K Technology Corporation, will make use of the combine intellectual property rights of each company and appears to have been set up with a view to reducing distribution and development costs and harnessing economies of scale.

According to a translation of the official press release on Kenwood's Web site, the two companies "plan to jointly develop a navigation engine that will require an unprecedented amount of development resources for navigation system devices." The document also suggested that the new company intends to develop a new in-car multimedia platform for audio and video.

Both JVC--which earlier this year announced its intention to exit the domestic Japanese car audio market--and Kenwood currently offer a range of in-car products, most of which are single-DIN CD receivers. In the past year, they have both expanded into navigation and in-car multimedia systems, with JVC's KD-NX5000 and Kenwood's DNX7100 being their respective flagship products.

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