LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., Aug. 27, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Bitfone Corporation (www.bitfone.com), a leader in over-the-air (OTA) update technology for mobile phones, today announced the appointment of Christer Pyyhtia as vice president of sales for EMEA, Danny Wang as country manager for Greater China and Shigeru Narita as director of sales for Japan. Bitfone also opened new offices in China and Japan, and will relocate its Korean office in September. In addition, Bitfone has launched localized Web sites in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The global expansion, which includes additional technical resources, enables Bitfone to respond more quickly to increased demand for their OTA firmware update solutions in these important target markets.
"The recent investments from Motorola and KTB have put us in great shape to expand globally and increase our customer touch," said Gene Wang, chairman and CEO for Bitfone. "Christer, Danny and Shigeru are all highly experienced sales executives that will maximize our opportunities with the leading manufacturers and carriers in Europe and Asia."
The sales executives will be responsible for penetrating targeted accounts, recruiting channel partners and expanding market share in their particular regions. All three gentlemen come from strong sales and professional backgrounds with extensive experience in both the wireless and high technology industries. In addition, Bitfone's regional technical personnel will enable Bitfone to further support new customers in the planning, training and deployment of OTA services.
Christer Pyyhtia, vice president of sales for EMEA, most recently was director of business development for MoSys, launching their embedded memory business and managing the sales initiatives for the company in Europe. Before MoSys, Pyyhtia was director of consulting and new product sales at Synopsys in Europe. He also held a variety of sales and marketing positions at Mentor Graphics, where he managed global relations and joint technology development projects with Nokia.
Danny Wang, country manager for Greater China, previously worked for Vweb as the regional sales manager for the Asia Pacific region, where he led all sales and business development activities, and coordinated pre- and post-sales technical support for customers. Wang was the number one sales contributor at Vweb, generating 70 percent of revenues for the company. Wang was also a sales manager at NTS Technology, where he set up and managed multiple sales channels in Greater China, Japan and Korea.
Shigeru Narita, director of sales for Japan, most recently worked as a business development consultant for several start-up wireless businesses in Japan. Previously, he was a sales executive for Software.com, which merged with Phone.com to become Openwave Systems. Narita also held sales and business development roles at Microsoft Japan, where he initiated carrier and ISP relations and managed pilot projects with partners as part of Microsoft's Advanced Technology group. He also managed relations between several major Japanese PC manufacturers and Microsoft via OEM Sales.
Bitfone opened new offices in Beijing, China and Tokyo, Japan. The Beijing office is located in the China Merchants Tower, 118 Jian Guo Rd, Chao Yan District, Beijing 100022, China. The Tokyo office is located at New Horizon Ebisu 1F, 3-14-20 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0011, Japan. Bitfone has also translated its Web site into Chinese to accompany new English, Japanese and Korean Web sites that were launched in July of 2003.
About Bitfone Corporation
Bitfone Corporation provides innovative software solutions for mobile device management. Bitfone's mProve(tm) is the wireless industry's leading technology that updates a mobile phone's core embedded operating system over the air, in a secure and fault-tolerant manner. mProve offers wireless manufacturers and carriers significant cost savings in the areas of warranty, recall and customer service, and expedites the time to market for mobile phones. Bitfone is a global company headquartered in Laguna Niguel, California, with offices in China, Finland, Japan and Korea. Bitfone's investors include Nokia Venture Partners, St. Paul Venture Capital, 3i, Nexit Ventures, Motorola, Inc., Orange Ventures, KTB Ventures and CIR Ventures. For more information, please visit www.bitfone.com.