Binatone is a British-Chinese
telecommunications company
A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
. Binatone was started in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
in 1958 by two brothers,
Gulu Lalvani
Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District.
The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. The distance from Gulu to Kampala, Uganda's capital and large ...
and Partap Lalvani, to import and distribute consumer electronics. The company was named after their sister, Bina.
Company history
Between 1976 and 1979, Binatone produced the "Binatone TV Master" series of
first generation video game consoles.
In 1983 Binatone was the first in Europe with fixed-line consumer products that could be bought at electronics retailers. This marked the beginning of a gradual change from Binatone's focus on audio and vision to telecom products.
In 2008, Dino Lalvani, son of Gulu Lalvani, purchased the company from his father and took over as chairman.
Binatone was the official shirt sponsor of
Queens Park Rangers Football Club from 2003 to 2006.
Binatone manufactures products under its own brand apart from utilising the
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
and
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
brands under licence.
Binatone Consoles
A very early console was the 'TV Game unit' but the first series was the 'TV master' series which are black & white pongs (first generation).
* TV Master MK IV.
* TV Master 4 plus 2.
* TV Master MK 6.
* TV Master MK 8.
* TV Master MK 10.
The Colour TV series are the same games but in Colour.
* Colour TV Game.
* Colour TV Game 4 plus 2.
* Colour TV Game MK 6.
* Colour TV Game MK 10.
Motorola
Binatone markets
baby monitor
A baby monitor, also known as a baby alarm, is a radio system used to remotely listen to sounds made by an infant. An audio monitor consists of a transmitter unit, equipped with a microphone, placed near to the child. It transmits the sounds by ...
s, pet monitors,
telephones
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
,
headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...
and car accessories under the Motorola brand name under an agreement with
Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility LLC, marketed as Motorola, is an American consumer electronics manufacturer primarily producing smartphones and other mobile devices running Android OS, Android. It is a subsidiary of the Chinese multinational technology company ...
and earlier,
Motorola Inc
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...
.
Hubble Connected
Binatone also operates a subsidiary ''Hubble Connected'' that acts as a platform for
connected devices. It acquired a
Bengaluru
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
-based startup ''Connovate'' in 2014 that merged into Hubble. In 2016, Dino Lalvani announced that Binatone intended to sell 20% of Hubble while shifting its corporate offices from the United States to Bengaluru, India.
External links
*
*
Binatone Communications*
Binatone LifestyleMotorola Home website
References
{{Queens Park Rangers F.C. shirt sponsors
Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
Mobile phone manufacturers
British brands
Motorola
British companies established in 1958
Electronics companies established in 1958
Electronics companies of Hong Kong