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After pulling out of the North American wireless phone market almost two years ago, Panasonic is preparing to launch a number of new lightweight and high-tech cellular phones in the next 12 to 18 months.
Most of these phones will be designed by Panasonic's Wireless Design Center in Suwanee, Ga., which performed most of the software coding and chip design. Since opening in April 1998, Panasonic has invested more than $20 million in the facility every year, said Jim Marion, the center's vice president and chief operating officer.
Marion said his next goal is to strengthen operations at the Wireless Design Center, which currently employs 130 professionals, including close to 100 engineers. Marion said the staff will double in 12 to 18 months to cope with more product development and launches.
Panasonic moved out of the North American wireless phone market in 1998, when it was making "analog" technology phones, because cellular providers were moving from analog to digital technology. Panasonic has never before sold wireless digital phones in North America.
Now the company, part of the huge Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan (NYSE: MC), plans to launch two to four new wireless phones by the end of 2001. The Wireless Design Center is the hub and headquarters of all of the company's wireless product launches in North America and Latin America. (One phone will be manulactured in Japan, and the others will be made in the Americas.)
Panasonic will introduce its first...