UIC News
Nokia and Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) Join UPnP™ Forum Steering Committee
Mobile Communications and Consumer Electronics Companies Join Industry leaders Guiding the Industry Networking Initiative
SAN RAMON, Calif. - March 30, 2004 - The UPnP Implementers Corporation (UIC) and the UPnP™ Forum today announced that Nokia and Matsushita Electric (MEI), best known for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communication products, have joined the UPnP Forum Steering Committee following formal elections.
The Steering Committee provides overall direction to the Forum and is comprised of industry leaders in consumer electronics, computing, home automation, home security, appliances, printing, photographic devices, computer networking and mobile products.
"Nokia focuses on seamlessly extending mobility across the Internet, media, enterprise and home domains. We strongly support the UPnP(tm) Forum as a provider of open specifications that enable connectivity between multiple devices and are excited about bringing our global expertise in mobile communications to the Steering Committee," said Timo Poikolainen, vice president, Marketing, Technology Platforms, Nokia.
"UPnP technology is key to Panasonic's vision of next-level connectivity in which networked consumer electronics seamlessly work together," said Mr.Ikuo Minakata, director , Standardization & Collaboration Center of MEI.
"We are delighted to have Nokia and MEI as new Steering Committee members," said Toby Nixon, chair of the UPnP™ Forum Steering Committee. "Their leadership in the communications and consumer electronics industries is a great indication of the value of UPnP technology for mobile devices and consumer electronics products."
The UPnP™ Forum is an industry initiative with more than 640 members working together to develop standards to enable simple and robust connectivity among stand-alone devices and PCs from many different vendors. The UIC is a non-profit corporation that certifies UPnP devices.
Current Steering Committee members also include Broadcom Corporation, Canon, Inc., Echelon Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Lantronix, LG Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Pelco, Inc., Philips Consumer Electronics, Pioneer Research, Ricoh Corporation, Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., Siemens AG, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Inc.
About UPnP™ Technology
UPnP technology makes home networking simple and affordable so the connected home experience becomes a mainstream experience for users and a great opportunity for the industry. UPnP device and service standards have been defined and published for Internet gateways/routers, audio-video media devices, printers, scanners, climate control, lighting and wireless LAN access points.
During the past 2 years, millions of UPnP™ enabled products were shipped throughout the world. Many of these products have been certified by the UIC. UPnP certification creates the foundation for interoperability and authorizes products to display the UPnP certification mark. This makes it easy for consumers and retailers to recognize products that correctly implement the UPnP device standards.
The UPnP architecture offers pervasive network connectivity between PCs of all form factors, intelligent appliances, and wireless devices. UPnP architecture leverages TCP/IP and the Web technologies to enable seamless proximity networking in addition to control and data transfer among networked devices in the home, office, and everywhere in between. UPnP technology can be supported on essentially any operating system and works with essentially any type of physical networking media - wired or wireless - providing maximum user and developer choice and great economics.
About the UPnP™ Forum
The UPnP Forum is a group of companies and individuals across multiple industries that play a leading role in the authoring of specifications for UPnP devices and services. Formed in June 1999, the Forum is an unincorporated entity of over 640 consumer electronics, computing, home automation, home security, appliances, printing, photography, computer networking, mobile products and other leading companies working together to design schema and protocol standards for the UPnP initiative.
For more information about the UPnP Forum, visit: http://www.upnp.org.
About the UPnP™ Implementers Corporation
The UIC is a non-profit corporation that administers the UPnP device certification process and the UPnP mark licensing. UIC members certify devices that implement standards that are written and approved by the UPnP Forum. The UIC has also filed for certification mark protection in 24 countries worldwide.
For more information about certifying your product with the UIC, visit: http://www.upnp-ic.org.
About Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand name, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the Company recorded consolidated sales of US$61.68 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003. Matsushita's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York, Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information, visit the Matsushita website at http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html
Contact:
Karen Reff
Administrator, UPnP Forum
kreff@vtm-inc.com
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The UPnP™ word mark and the UPnP logo are certification marks owned and managed by the UPnP Implementers Corp. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
