SUN AND SYMBIAN ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE TO INCORPORATE JAVA TECHNOLOGY IN OVER 40 MILLION EPOC WIRELESS INFORMATION DEVICESSUN AND SYMBIAN ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE TO INCORPORATE JAVA™ TECHNOLOGY IN OVER 40 MILLION EPOC™ WIRELESS INFORMATION DEVICESEricsson, Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Psion and Others to Have Access to Sun's Java Technology for Future Smartphones and CommunicatorsHannover, Germany, March 17, 1999 - At CeBIT today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Symbian announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which is subject to further negotiation and the closing of a definitive agreement, to incorporate Sun's Java™ technology as part of Symbian's standard EPOC platform solution. This joint initiative is expected to benefit between 40 and 60 million users of Wireless Information Devices within the next five years. Together, Java technology and the EPOC operating system are expected to provide a strong foundation for developers and service providers to expand their businesses with new content and services. Java technologies help address business and consumer problems of incompatibility, complexity and security across networked appliances, allowing service providers to seamlessly deploy their content to a wide range of Wireless Information Devices. Service providers can also capture after-market sales by taking advantage of remote upgrading to deliver new capabilities to devices over the network. "With the number of mobile phone subscribers forecast to reach one sixth of the world's population in the year 2005, the potential impact of the Sun and Symbian alliance on the wireless market is enormous," said Scott McNealy, President and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "The Wireless Information Device is likely to be one of the most influential networked devices to drive customers into the PostPC era, providing a vast new market for wireless networked services and applications." The combination of EPOC with Java technology is an attractive solution for Symbian licensees, including Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Phillips and Psion, because of the key advantages it offers in the deployment of applications in a multi-platform environment. Users can work with the same applications across a wide range of networked consumer devices utilizing different microprocessors and operating systems. Developers could quickly and cost-effectively create applications, with unparalleled ease-of-use, scalability and security. Colly Myers, CEO of Symbian comments "Symbian's alliance with Sun continues our stated aim of encouraging and developing open standards to enable the development of the Wireless Information Device industry. This relationship will further assist the momentum behind the adoption of EPOC and Java technologies as world-wide industry standards - providing significant opportunities for licensees, developers and technology partners." Sun and Symbian are both committed to adopting open standards and working with key stakeholders in the wireless industry. In related news, both companies announced this week separate strategic relationships with NTT DoCoMo, one of the world's largest mobile communications operators. Such alliances are expected to encourage the development and emergence of a strong Wireless Information Device industry offering attractive and enchanting solutions for end-users. The first products to be developed as a result of the Sun and Symbian agreement are currently expected to ship before the end of 1999.
About Symbian Ltd.Symbian owns licenses, develops and supports the EPOC platform - providing leading software, user interfaces, application frameworks and development tools for Wireless Information Devices such as Communicators and Smartphones. Symbian aims to promote standards for the interoperation of Wireless Information Devices with wireless networks, content services, messaging and enterprise wide solutions. With headquarters in London, and offices in Kanazawa, Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area, Symbian is owned by Psion, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. Symbian can be found at on the Internet at www.symbian.com.
About Sun:Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer™" has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ 'SUNW') to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10.5 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Java and ``The Network Is The Computer'' are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
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