20 March 2006

Developing the world’s smallest Global Positioning System (GPS) radio frequency (RF) receiver module, the size of a baby’s fingernail, is the latest technological feat by New Zealand company Rakon. The development has GPS manufacturers queuing to imbed the ‘plug and play’ unit in their own ever-smaller GPS-enabled developments, including mobile phones, PDAs and even watches.

Rakon Sales Manager Justin Maloney says the receiver module is a great addition to the company’s portfolio of quartz-crystal-based technology. “We’re predicting that the unit will provide between 20 and 30 percent of our revenue stream over the next few years. It’s a very big little development.”

Justin says that the attractiveness of the unit goes beyond its extremely small size. “The unit has high sensitivity that can pick up weak signals. This is a real breakthrough for products that need to function in urban environments which often have very high interference. And as we speak the research and development team is improving the unit to provide even greater sensitivity for the next generation of GPS RF units.”

Rakon, a family business founded in 1967, catapulted onto the world stage in the 1980s when it pioneered quartz-crystal-based oscillators capable of maintaining high levels of accuracy and unique lock-on stability in extreme environments, a.k.a Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator (TCXO) technology. All GPS receivers use quartz crystals in the decoding of satellite positioning data by oscillating at very specific frequencies. By 1989, Rakon was supplying NEC Australia with TCXOs for cellular phone production. By the early 1990s, Rakon was supplying large volumes of TCXOs to most major GPS manufacturers in the United States.

Today, it is no small player; even without Rakon’s latest offering, the company has for several years supplied over 50 percent of the frequency control devices used by the world’s GPS industry, outperforming larger competitors from Asia, the United States and Europe. Last year the company hit record production numbers of nearly three million units a month from its Auckland factory and expects this to triple in 2006. It employs more than 500 staff and has offices in New Zealand, Taiwan and the United States, with representatives worldwide.

“Location-based services is a US$15 billion industry, which can only get bigger. A United States mandate now requires its manufacturers to build GPS receivers into their cellular phones so that caller location can be established. In addition, we see a bright future in partnership with the automotive industry as more and more vehicles are being turned out with GPS technology,” says Justin.

Justin says that Rakon has succeeded through its ability to predict and respond rapidly to market trends.

“We have stayed ahead of our competition because we are always looking to our clients to find out their problems and fix them, as opposed to simply offering products. Our strength is our flexibility and speed to market,” says Justin.

Recent investment in the business sees the company in a strong position for expansion in the year ahead.

In 2005, Rakon won the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Supreme New Zealand Exporter of the Year Award as well as the Information and Communications Technology exporter of the year award. The Export Awards judges said Rakon was a market leader on a global scale, outselling competitors often 20 times its size from Asia, the United States and Europe.

“This is a class act company that has shown it has vision and perseverance,” says NZTE chief executive Tim Gibson.

For more information about Rakon, please see its website at www.rakon.com.