29th,August 2007
Production of 100 Million Car AV Units Reached


  FUJITSU TEN LIMITED (Headquarters: Kobe, Japan, President: Keijiro Katsumaru, Capital: 5.3 billion yen) held a memorial ceremony at their corporate headquarters on Aug. 29 to commemorate a cumulative production of 100 million car AV products (car radio, audio, TV, navigation system and others) as of June 2007 dating from FUJITSU TEN's first car AV product, a car radio installed in the Toyota's Crown in 1955.

  The roots of the FUJITSU TEN have their origin in the KAWANISHI MACHINE WORKS, passing through the KOBE INDUSTRIES CORP. and Fujitsu Limited to the establishment of the current company. In 1955 (KOBE INDUSTRIES CORP. era), the company starting delivering car radios to Toyota Motor Corp. (then called Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.) to be installed in Toyota's Crown model. That same year saw FUJITSU TEN launch aftermarket sales, marking the beginning of their history in the car audio industry.
  After that, FUJITSU TEN soon consolidated their position in the industry with the introduction to the market of Japan's first all-transistor car radio (1959) and Japan's first 8-track car stereo (1967) among many other innovative products. Always at the industry forefront, the company jointly developed, with Toyota Motor Corp., the world's first in-car use CD player in 1983, and in 1997 launched the "AVN", an integrated car navigation and audio-visual system that has developed into the current industry standard configuration for car navigation systems.

  Domestic production consists of three production bases located at the corporate headquarters, Nakatsugawa Plant (Nakatsugawa, Gifu Pref.), and TOCHIGI FUJITSU TEN (Oyama, Tochigi Pref.), a subsidiary company. Focusing on the expansion of the global market, foreign production first began in 1987 in the United States, followed by the establishment of production bases in the Philippines, Mexico, China (Tianjin), Thailand, China (Wuxi), and Spain.

  In recent years, car navigation systems have become the norm and car AV devices have come to occupy a central position in car interior design, while looking towards the future, car AV products are expected to play an crucial role in the realization of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
   The achievement of 100 million units produced marks a historic juncture for FUJITSU TEN, providing the opportunity to redouble our efforts to provide car AV products and services that are always one step ahead of our customers' expectations, while also developing cutting edge information technology to realize three key factors of the automobile society: "Ensure safety and security"; "Provide comfortable moving spaces"; and "Contribute to the global environment".

President Keijiro Katsumaru speaking at the memorial ceremony


【The Path to the Production of 100 Million Car AV Units】
Year Description
1955 Delivery of car radio for Toyota's Crown
1959 Development of Japan's first all-transistor car radio
1965 Cumulative production reaches one million units
1967 Japan's first 8-track car stereo
1973 Cumulative production reaches ten million units
1983 Joint development with Toyota Motor Corp. of the world's first in-car use CD player
1988 Cumulative production reaches 50 million units
1989 Development of the world's first in-car use DSP sound processor
1994 Marketed "Car Marty" the world's first multimedia player for in-car use
1995 Marketed the new "ECLIPSE" series for the Japanese market
1997 Marketed the "AVN", a 2DIN size integrated Audio/Visual/Navigation unit, under an all-in-one concept
1997 Delivery of the world's first 1DIN size 6-CD changer to Toyota Motor Corp.
2000 Delivery to Toyota Motor Corp. of DVD-AVN, the world's first 2DIN size integrated DVD navigation and audio-visual unit
2002 Introduced the world's first car navigation system equipped with two units of 20 GB hard disk
2004 Sales of the "AVN" launched in North America and China
2005 Marketed the world's first "DUAL AVN" car navigation unit that provides different displays at the same time to the driver and passenger
2005 Marketed the world's first "1DIN AVN" featuring all audio, visual and navigation functions built into one unit
2006 Joint development with Toyota Boshoku Corporation of the world's first "headliner speaker system" that creates sound by vibrating the roofing material of a car
2007 Cumulative production reaches 100 million units

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