OSBORNE Park-based Q-Mac Electronics is a classic example of a company that let marketing drive the development of its main product.
The company has carved a niche for itself in the lucrative high-frequency radio market and is selling its HF90 product to customers on every continent.
High-frequency radios are most widely used by ham radio operators and military and paramilitary organisations.
The company asked its prospective customers what they wanted in a high-frequency radio.
That research came back with a demand for a portable high-frequency radio that could fit into a container with a volume of about one litre.
The company’s engineer was then told to fit a radio into a box that size.
Most high-frequency radios are about the size of a desktop computer.
Besides its portability, the latest versions of the radio come with frequency jumping software that makes them more secure.
Q-Mac marketing director Joe Mihic said the HF90 was still the smallest high-frequency radio available to the world.
“The key thing that has leveraged this company is that we’ve picked a niche within a niche,” he said.
The HF90 is largely sold to developing nations.
