KUALA LUMPUR: EG Industries Bhd has secured a US$36mil (RM146mil) contract to be the sole manufacturer for Flic, the world’s first wireless smart button that creates a shortcut to favourite actions on mobile devices
The electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company said on Monday it was awarded the two-year contract by Sweden-based Shortcut Labs AB to manufacture Flic.
‘EG Industries signed the manufacturing and partnership agreement to undertake full-scale manufacturing of Flic for the worldwide market and to distribute Flic in Asia.
EG Industries group CEO Alex Kang said this was exciting development for the company as it affirmed the company as a one-stop manufacturing partner, but “it also opens the prospect for us to support the fast-growing adoption of smart interconnecting devices”.
With Flic continuing to evolve in the coming years, we are well-poised to ride this momentum of worldwide adoption,” he said in a statement.
Having secured International Procurement Centre (IPC) status, the EG Industries intends to offer value-added services through one-stop vertical integration solutions including distribution, he said.
Flic creates physical shortcuts to digital functions in mobile devices. The wireless push button launches a predefined task on the user’s device for both iOS and Android platforms. With Flic, one can control lights, take picture, play music, call a cab, share instant location, and much more.
Flic was officially launched globally in October 2015, with EG Industries undertaking its trial production.
Within six months, over 100,000 units of Flic were sold mainly in the US and Europe, leading to the full commercialisation of its production from hereon.
Shortcut Labs has also begun teaming up with various partners to integrate Flic into its product and services for user convenience.
Shortcut Labs co-founder and chief operating officer, Amir Sharifat said the objective for coming out with Flic was to have a small device to replace all remote controllers, making the user’s life more simplified.
“This contract is our next step towards building a strong partnership with EG Industries following their commendable manufacturing support during Flic’s launch. With EG Industries’ commitment, we are able to focus on exploring potential markets globally,” he said.
He said Shortcut Labs was just beginning to incorporate Flic’s functionality with numerous brands and believed this was just at the start of a new growth phase.
“Apart from manufacturing, we have engaged EG Industries to be our distributor for the Asian market. Given the bright outlook, we estimate for the awarded contract to EG Industries to be worth around US$36mil (RM146mil) for the two year period,” he said.
