Frost & Sullivan Lauds Itron for its Unassailable Lead in Revenue Share in the North American Electric Meter Market.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Frost & Sullivan announced today that it has selected Itron, Inc. as the recipient of the 2007 North American Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award in the electric meter market.

Itron has nearly 45 percent of the revenue share, more than twice of its nearest competitor's. With such a large market share, Itron can achieve economies of scale and produce solid-state meters more cost-effectively than its peers.

The company achieved its initial dominance with the 2004 acquisition of Schlumberger's (SLB's) metering business. Since the meters have a huge installed base in the U.S. utility industry, Itron has become far less dependent on alliances than its competitors.

Itron's production of solid-state meters has given it superior production capacity and control of meter production, placing it in a better position to satisfy the major orders that are expected in the current AMR/AMI-driven market. Also, utilities prefer dealing with a single entity that possesses all necessary capabilities than with a group of allied vendors, each submitting parts of a whole.

"Being able to assemble diverse technology capabilities that help access additional customer segments also helps to capture more market share," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Roberta Gamble.

For instance, Itron's acquisition of Silicon Energy, a leading provider of systems that help utilities manage and leverage the value of their meter data, helped Itron offer a best-in-class software suite anchored by an enterprise meter data management solution. The offering also includes software applications for revenue assurance, customer care, complex billing, demand response, distribution asset analysis, load research, and enterprise energy management.

"The acquisition of global metering giant Actaris Metering Systems in 2007 furthered Itron's scale advantage and also provided Itron with a truly global footprint," said Gamble. "With Actaris, Itron now serves more than 8,000 customers in 130 countries."

Itron has also acquired other complementary businesses and capabilities such as distribution system design software, mobile workforce management, energy forecasting and a range consulting business that focuses on renewables, energy efficiency, and demand response.

Further, Itron operates a market intelligence department, which monitors market metrics across all major customer and technology segments. By placing great emphasis on preserving customer relationships, Itron creates associations that can help obtain orders from utilities when they expand or upgrade their metering systems and win blanket order agreements.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this Award to the company that has exhibited market share leadership through the implementation of market strategy. The recipient has displayed excellence in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as strategy development and methods of addressing these market dynamics.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Itron Inc.

Itron Inc. is a leading technology provider to the global energy and water industries. Itron Inc. consists of Itron in North America and Actaris outside of North America. Our company is the world's leading provider of metering, data collection and utility software solutions, with nearly 8,000 utilities worldwide relying on our technology to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Our products include electricity, gas and water meters; data collection and communication systems, including automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); meter data management and related software applications; project management, installation, and consulting services. To know more, start here: www.itron.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.awards.frost.com.