Jabra

Business & Consumer electronics

1983

Elwood Norris

Copenhagen, Denmark

World-wide

Headsets

www.jabra.com

Jabra is a global headset brand, owned by the Danish-company GN Great Nordic (known as GN Store Nord in Danish). Jabra develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of wireless and corded headsets for mobile phone users, contact centres and office-based users.

[edit] History

Based on a desire to explore the vast possibilities of hands-free communication, in 1983 Utah based inventor/entrepreneur Elwood "Woody" Norris founded Norcom Electronics Corporation (later Jabra Corporation).[1] From its inception, Norcom Electronics was engaged in the development of ear-radio and ear-microphone technologies.

In September 1984, American Technology Corporation (ATC), a publicly traded corporation also founded by Woody Norris, acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of Norcom Electronics.[2]

In March 1988, ATC sold Norcom Electronics to Norris Communications, Inc. (NCI), another publicly-traded corporation founded by Woody Norris, in return for 700,000 shares of NCI common stock and a 1% royalty on gross sales of its EarPHONE product.[2] NCI subsequently changed the name of Norcom Electronics to Jabra Corporation.

In September 2000, Jabra Corporation was acquired by GN Netcom, a division of the Danish company GN Great Nordic. In that same year, GN Netcom under the Jabra brand launched the world’s first Bluetooth headset for mobile phones, the Jabra BT100.

In 2006, GN Netcom consolidated its Contact Centre and Office (CC&O) headset division under the Jabra brand. This was followed by a restructuring in 2008, which established two distinct divisions within Jabra; CC&O and Mobile. This restructuring thus facilitated a greater focus on business to business and consumer markets respectively.[3]

[edit] Jabra Products

Jabra STONE Bluetooth Headset

• Bluetooth Headsets: These headsets are for use with Bluetooth enabled devices, namely; mobile phones, music players and computers. Jabra Mobile produces Bluetooth headsets within two sound related categories; mono and stereo.
• Corded Headsets: These headsets are for use with communication and music devices and connect via a standard 3.5mm jack plug.
• Bluetooth In-car Speakerphones: These speakerphones connect wirelessly to a mobile phone to enable hands-free communication while driving.
• Unified Communication Headsets: These headsets integrate technologies such as voice, email and instant messaging through one communication medium.