For Release: June 28, 2005
Altera Celebrates 15 Years of Leadership in Japan
Altera Continues to Maintain its Leading Market Share Position, Product and Service Leadership in the Japanese Market
TOKYO, June 28, 2005—Altera Japan, Ltd. marks its 15th anniversary this week, celebrating continued leadership and growth in the Japanese market. Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) founded subsidiary Altera Japan, Ltd. in June 1990 and attributes the continuous market leadership and acceptance by Japanese customers to Altera’s innovative programmable logic solutions.
While many foreign semiconductor companies struggle to penetrate the Japanese market, 25 percent of Altera’s business comes from Japan, more than double the size of a typical foreign semiconductor company. For Altera, the key to success in Japan has been the fundamental belief of “listening to the voice of the customer.” By paying attention to the needs of its Japanese customers, Altera has established strong partnerships with many of Japan’s leading innovators, and as a result, has enjoyed a leadership position in the Japanese market.
Innovation in Programmable Logic Market
Altera’s innovative approach to business has involved more than just leading-edge technology. For example, Altera hosts an annual one-day event, PLD World, to help customers gain a deeper understanding of how Altera® programmable logic solutions address the system-level design issues of today and tomorrow. Altera is the first programmable logic vendor to host such an event, working with its partners to showcase products and solutions that address technology challenges in programmable logic designs. This year’s PLD World will take place in Tokyo on October 21 and in Osaka on October 28.
Altera is also the first programmable logic vendor to mass produce lead-free semiconductor devices to meet the growing environmental concerns of its Japanese customers. Altera began lead-free product development in 2000 and began shipping production quantities to customers in 2002. All of Altera’s lead-free products meet the requirements of the European Parliament’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, an initiative to reduce the content of hazardous substances in electronic equipment. They also meet the requirements of Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) to use only lead-free solder in all new products.
“Listening to the voice of the Japanese customer is the fundamental success factor of our business in Japan,” said John Daane, president, CEO and chairman of the board at Altera. “By working closely with our customers, we have learned a great deal, and this has enabled us to develop innovative solutions and support models. We can contribute this to our leading position in the Japanese programmable logic market.”
“Japan is recognized for its highly-sophisticated consumers who define the digital entertainment and mobile communications market—the world looks to Japan to see what is happening next in the consumer electronics industry,” said Hiro Higuma, president of Altera Japan, Ltd. “By partnering with our Japanese customers early in the company’s formation, Altera has demonstrated its commitment to providing the innovative products that will drive the next wave of digital technology.”
Japan continues to lead in the adoption of Altera’s latest product families, Stratix® II FPGAs, CycloneTM II FPGAs, MAX® II CPLDs and Nios® II soft embedded processor. With innovations occurring in digital entertainment products, such as flat panel displays, DVD-HDD recorders, Fiber-to-the-home access products and mobile and telecommunications technologies, Altera will continue to invest and develop innovative solutions that will enable Japanese customers to maintain their competitive edge.
About Altera
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is the world’s pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, Altera Japan, Ltd. is the number-one supplier of programmable logic devices in Japan. Twenty-five percent of Altera’s revenue is generated from the Japanese market. More information in Japanese is available at www.altera.co.jp.
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