() is a Japanese company in the

wireless communication Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

industry.

History

Uniden was established on February 7, 1966, by its founder Hidero Fujimoto as "Uni Electronics Corp". Uniden became a well-known brand in the 1970s by manufacturing and marketing millions of

citizens band radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

s (CB), under the Uniden brand as well as many for popular private brand labels such as Clegg (amateur transceivers), Cobra, Craig, Fanon-Courier, Midland (only certain clone models, originals were made by Cybernet), President, Teaberry, Stalker, Super Star, Teledyne-Olson, Pearce Simpson, Realistic, Regency, Robyn and many European brands such as Zodiac, Stabo and Inno-Hit. Uniden also marketed CB Radios in the UK under the Uniden and Uniace brands during the late 1970s. During the 1980s, Uniden grew to become the world's largest manufacturer of

cordless telephone A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short ...

s in addition to television satellite equipment, mobile radios, advanced

marine electronics Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some electronics devices. Therefore, the majority of these types o ...

and radio scanners (the latter under brandname Bearcat). In

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, it became successful in the telecommunications market with its introduction of 900 MHz cordless telephones. As Uniden continued to grow and extend its international operations, Uniden Australia and Uniden New Zealand were established in 1989. Uniden's revenue has plummeted since smartphones and

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

solutions have become mainstream. In 2007, Uniden had a revenue of 77.7 billion yen. Just three years later in 2010, Uniden reported a revenue of just 35.5 billion yen.

Operation

As of 2018, current products include

cordless phones A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short ...

radar detectors Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, ...

, radio scanners, CB radios, and security/surveillance products. At one point Uniden produced over two million wireless products every month and manufactures one cordless phone every 3.2 seconds. This statistic has become part of their company description used by many retailers and the date of the statistic is unknown. Despite the cordless phone's falling popularity, this claim still appears on Uniden Australia's website. Uniden operates globally, but the main commercial activities are situated in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Manufacturing sites have been located in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. In 2008, Uniden began to move production from China to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

because of lower wages. Uniden-AS-7402.jpg, Landline telephone model AS-7402 manufactured in 2013 CordlessUniden-large.jpg, Uniden telephone handset UnidenBCD396D.jpg, Uniden BCD396T handheld

radio scanner A scanner (also referred to as a radio scanner) is a radio receiver that can automatically tune, or ''scan'', two or more discrete frequencies, stopping when it finds a signal on one of them and then continuing to scan other frequencies when the ...

Uniden_BCT-15_deck_in_bracket-right.jpeg, Uniden BCT-15 mobile/base radio scanner 10 Meter 2Way Radio.jpg, Uniden President HR2510A, a mobile

10-meter band The 10-meter band is a portion of the shortwave radio spectrum internationally allocated to amateur radio and amateur satellite use on a primary basis. The band consists of frequencies stretching from 28.000 to 29.700 MHz. History The 10 ...

radio. Uniden GMR1035-2.jpg, Uniden walkie-talkie model GMR1035-2 Pearce-Simpson CTV-894 (Picture 6).jpg, Pearce-Simpson CTV-894

handheld television A handheld television is a portable device for watching television that usually uses a TFT LCD or OLED and CRT color display. Many of these devices resemble handheld transistor radios. History In the 1970s and early 1980s, Panasonic and S ...

References

External links

— Uniden Global

— Uniden Cellular Boosters
{{Japanese Electronics Industry Electronics companies of Japan Telecommunications companies based in Tokyo Amateur radio companies Marine electronics Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Telecommunications companies established in 1966 1966 establishments in Japan Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Japanese brands Radio manufacturers