09-January-2012 New Delhi Auto Expo 2012: HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group, today introduced a revolutionary platform for the entry level infotainment market targeting two-wheeler and four-wheeler applications. Led by project teams at Harman’s India Development Center, together with Harman’s global R&D and innovation resources, the new platform was created using a modular, scalable approach, cutting the typical development time in half.
“We are pleased to bring forth to you Harman’s newest and advanced offering in the infotainment technology space. There is a segment in the market today which has not been addressed by feature, function or price; we take great pride in providing a compelling solution that takes entry-level infotainment to new heights via our superior quality infotainment offering.” said Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of HARMAN.
Going beyond providing traditional radio and rich multimedia functionality, the innovation in this platform is the exceptional connectivity capability. With Harman’s leading connectivity technology, applications running on Android/Apple or other smartphones can seamlessly connect to the infotainment system and provide for a rich and safe end-user experience. The car OEM can now offer features usually meant for high-end Infotainment systems – features such as turn-by-turn navigation, Internet radio, Harman’s AHA Radio and access to many more applications to the user in a highly cost-effective manner.
“This entry level, infotainment system for car OEMs has been designed keeping in mind the needs of the Indian consumer. We believe this offering is the first of its kind and will go a long way in showcasing our technological prowess and innovation,” added M. Lakshminarayan, Managing Director and Country Manager, Harman International (India) Pvt. Ltd.
The infotainment system includes the Aha Radio Platform. Aha is HARMAN´s Silicon Valley-based business unit powering the Web-connected ‘fourth band’ of the radio dial, making Web content as easy to access as AM and FM channels. Owners of Aha-Ready vehicles will have instant access to tens of thousands of stations of Web-based content including music services, Internet radio, podcasts, live news, free audio books, personalized traffic reports, Facebook and Twitter feeds, location-based services and more, The Aha Service is free of charge for customers and always up-to-date, thanks to its cloud-based technology platform which can easily keep up with rapid-changing web and content companies.
About HARMAN
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 12,500 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.0 billion for the 12 months ended September 30, 2011. The company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE: HAR.