GENIVI Alliance Membership Ranks Expand With Leaders Across Industries

MUNICH, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- GENIVI Alliance, the automotive industry's only collaborative association dedicated to driving the development and broad adoption of an open source In-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference platform, today announced its continued strong growth with the addition of four prestigious companies from the consumer electronics and technology industries.

Nokia, Mentor Graphics, NEC Electronics, and Wipro Technologies have joined the Alliance as 'Core' Members. Additionally, the Alliance is pleased to announce that Continental and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute have upgraded their membership level from an 'Associate' to Core-level.

As members of the Core level, these industry leaders will be able to take an active role in driving the Alliance's direction, software development, and community outreach. They may either contribute significant code or provide engineering resources for the continued development of the GENIVI Open Source Platform. With these six new and upgraded members, GENIVI has exceeded its 2009 goal of Core members within the first year since the Alliance launched.

"GENIVI is focused on building a community that aligns OEMs, Tier Ones, independent software vendors, operating system vendors, and silicon vendors to increase delivery efficiency for IVI solutions," said Graham Smethurst, GENIVI president. "GENIVI is harnessing the power of open source software and collaborative development to create an eco-system that fosters innovation, enables new market models, and reduces time to market."

"People now have their mobile devices with them wherever they are. They want to be able to make calls, as well as listen to music and find their way around, enabled by services such as Ovi from Nokia, anywhere," said Tmo Ali-Vehmas, vice president, Compatibility & Industry Collaboration, Nokia. "Seamless integration of mobile devices to car infotainment systems is an increasingly important part of satisfying these needs. Nokia is excited to join GENIVI to be part of shaping the future in-vehicle infotainment specifications." Ali-Vehmas continued, "Nokia will contribute extensive experience in standardization and creating open specifications, and expect GENIVI work to result in quicker time-to-market and reduced costs for car infotainment related product development."

"The traditional boundaries between home, mobile and automotive infotainment systems are quickly going away. Consumers are now expecting the same features and equal access to their data across all these platforms," said Jim Trent, vice president and general manager at NEC Electronics America. "As a member of GENIVI, NEC Electronics will bring semiconductor device expertise from all these market areas to the Alliance, and assist in developing open platforms that will leverage the best available solution to support a seamless user experience."

At the 7th Annual Telematics Munich 2009 Conference, the GENIVI Alliance will be represented by a panel discussion titled, "Open Platform Technology Is Gaining Momentum. Choose Your Side Now" on 10 November 2009 from 14.30 - 15.00, and include Alliance members from BMW, Continental, and Intel.

About Nokia
Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world's leading maker of mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and different ways - fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable people to stay close to what matters to them. We also provide comprehensive digital map information through NAVTEQ; and equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

About NEC Electronics Corporation
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets; system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripheral, automotive and digital consumer markets; and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). More information about NEC Electronics worldwide can be found at www.necel.com.

About the GENIVI Alliance
GENIVI Alliance is a non-profit industry association whose mission is to drive the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open source development platform. GENIVI will accomplish this by aligning requirements, delivering reference implementations, offering certification programs and fostering a vibrant open source IVI community. GENIVI's work will result in shortened development cycles, quicker time-to-market, and reduced costs for companies developing IVI equipment and software. GENIVI is headquartered in San Ramon, Calif. www.genivi.org.