Intelium to market MiTAC cell phones in Israel

Intelium plans to market smart, smaller, and lighter cell phones.

Intelium has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Taiwanese electronics manufacturer MiTAC International, which manufactures cellular telephones and handheld computers. This is MiTAC’s first entry into the Israeli market. Under the agreement, Intelium will import, distribute, market, and supply support for MiTAC’s cell phones and handheld computers, under the MIO brand name. Intelium is a distributor for cellular end-user devices.

Intelium is owned by Ariel Ness, son of former Minister of Finance Moshe Nissim, and Emblaze Systems cofounder and CEO Eli Reifman. As first reported in “Globes”, Reifman is in the company as a silent partner, and is not involved in the company’s management or business.

Intelium plans to market initially a smart cellular telephone, and handheld computers never before marketed in Israel, which can complement other cell phones.

In Israel, the smart phone niche is considered fairly empty. Several distributors market smart phones, including a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) telephone, but these phones have not yet managed to gain a share of the mass market. One reason is that the user interface is non-standard, and another is that these phones are bigger and heavier than the standard phones.

MiTAC said that the size and weight of the smart phone to be marketed in Israel were similar to those of the regular phones, and the user interface would be the regular WINDOWS interface. MiTAC believes that the combination of this interface and a thin phone will make mass marketing in Israel possible.

Following the signing of the agreement, Intelium announced today the launching of several MiTAC handheld computers, to be marketed under the MIO brand name. The handheld computers include Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Pocket PC operating system, as well as a powerful Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) processor. Some models have smart digital cameras installed, Wi-Fi technologies, and Bluetooth.

In the immediate future, after obtaining the necessary authorization, Intelium also plans to launch a smart cell phone under the MIO brand name. The phone, which will be used for GSM and GPRS networks, has a Microsoft WINDOWS operating system for cellular telephones.

Since several companies distribute cellular telephones in Israel, including Eurocom Communications, which markets phones made by Nokia; Solgood Communications, which market the phones of Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG; Amsterdam: PHI) and SK Global (KSE: 01740.KS) of South Korea; Polar Investments subsidiary Dai Telecom, which manufactures and markets cellular telephones in Israel through its stake in Italian company Telit; Suny Electronics, which markets Samsung telephones; and Commutech Holdings and Investments, controlled by Yitzhak Tshuva, which markets cellular telephones made by Siemens (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE), and is expected to begin marketing cell phones made by Sharp Corporation (through Ralco Agencies); and Mini Line Communication, which imports Lucky Goldstar (LG - KSE: 66570) telephones.

Motorola Cell Phones and Sony-Ericsson market their end-user cellular devices directly to the cellular operators.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 7, 2003

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