[ICOM] New Kenwood D-Star looks Icomish

[Adam Farson]

Hi Jay,

Actually, there is no comparison between Icom/Kenwood and Ford/Mazda. Ford
owns 30% of Mazda (the maximum foreign ownership permitted under Japanese
law.) To my knowledge, Mazda does not own an interest in Ford. They use one
another's subassemblies, which is commonplace in the car industry. 

Under the JV, Icom and Kenwood are not subsidiaries of each other. I do not
believe that Kenwood and Icom will use one another's modules or boards,
although one may well see re-badged radios. I am sure the two companies will
seek economies by avoiding R&D duplication where possible.

Cheers for now, 73,
Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ


-----Original Message-----
From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Jay Eimer
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 13:10
To: ICOM Reflector
Subject: RE: [ICOM] New Kenwood D-Star looks Icomish

Yep - probably not much different than Ford/Mazda - look at the Ranger/
B-Series pickups - bodywork looks the same except for minor differences
(hood and tailgate profile, fender flare) and the trim.  Even the engines
are "swaps" (2.3 I-4 is from Mazda, 3.0 V6 is a Ford, regardless of the
"label" on the outside).  But no one would argue that all Fords are Mazdas,
or vice versa.  Just the guts and/or cases of "certain" ones.

Adam Farson <farson at shaw.ca> wrote:  Hi Ed,

No, each company will retain its corporate identity. Part of the
joint-venture agreement is that the respective companies will each bring out
products under their own name. (Of course, the recently-announced
Kenwood-JVC merger may lead to changes in the Kenwood brand.)

Kenwood and Icom own blocks of one another's shares. The JV mainly covers
new LMR technologies. Don't expect a "killer" Kenwood HF transceiver any
time soon.

http://www.icom.co.jp/world/info/pdf/info060517.pdf

Cheers for now, 73,
Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ




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