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For Immediate Release Contact: Amanda Stokes Spyglass 1.630.245.6512 [email protected] Joey Lee Shandwick Convergence 1.310.201.8871 [email protected] Spyglass Announces First-ever WAP Compliant Solutions for Wireless Industry Company Outlines New Wireless Browser, Gateway Server Technology and Content Provider Plans in Response to Demands from Wireless Telecommunications Industry Orlando, Fla. - Wednesday, September 23, 1998 - Internet pioneer and Wireless Application Forum (WAP) member Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ: SPYG) announced at PCS '98 today that it will create new solutions based on the WAP specification for both mobile phone browsers and the back-end servers that deliver content and messaging to consumers. The WAP specification calls for a standards-based approach to wireless content delivery that is both faster and more reliable than using traditional Internet protocols for wireless data services. The WAP 1.0 specification was released to the public May 1, 1998. The three new WAP technologies that Spyglass will make available cover the entire wireless marketplace: the device, the network infrastructure, and the content that is delivered via the network to the devices. In every case, the Spyglass Professional Services engineering group will be able to build custom implementations of these technologies. * Spyglass Wireless Device Mosaic: A small footprint microbrowser, designed expressly for the memory and processor requirements of wireless devices, including cellular phones, PDAs and handheld computers. Spyglass Wireless Device Mosaic will be capable of displaying WML, the WAP-specified, wireless device content language that is similar to HTML. The new WAP-compliant browser is based on the same embedded Internet architecture as the Spyglass Device Mosaic Web browser. Consequently, Spyglass can offer a hybrid WML/HTML browser built for the WAP communications protocol that is capable of displaying either WML or traditional Internet (HTML) content. Target customers are handset manufacturers and consumer electronics companies. * Spyglass WAP Gateway Server technologies: Spyglass also has content delivery technologies that will be the underpinning of any WAP Gateway Server. (To deliver services, the WAP infrastructure requires its own server type that compresses the WML content.) Spyglass will provide the core gateway technologies, including WML and WMLscript encoding and implementations of the WAP communications protocol. In addition, Spyglass will also provide value-added technology, such as HTML to WML conversion, which makes it possible for Web content to be displayed on WAP devices. The Spyglass WAP Gateway Server technologies will be designed in such a way that they can be used effectively with any wireless network, including CDMA, TDMA or GSM. Target customers are the traditional infrastructure providers as well as those companies building advanced application servers -- SMS for example -- and those providing universal in-box services. * Spyglass Content Provider technologies: The same Spyglass technologies that can be used within WAP Gateway servers can also be deployed by content providers looking to broaden the reach of their services. This will enable content providers to dynamically convert traditional Internet content (HTML) to formats more suited to wireless devices. Conversions include HTML to WML, as well as simply reducing the size of the HTML document by lowering the resolution of images and selectively extracting content. HTML to Compact-HTML or TTML conversions will also be supported. When used together or teamed with other WAP-compliant products, these new technologies enable wireless carriers to provide the first standards-based wireless data services. These services range from simple, on-line, menu-driven customer care to significantly more advanced, graphically rich travel, traffic or financial applications. "Current wireless data systems are limited due to bandwidth constraints," said Jack Armstrong, director of Internet solutions for Spyglass, as well as the company's WAP Forum representative. "Those constraints will ultimately disappear, opening the door to a much wider variety of content. The Spyglass technology is designed to assist with that migration: start simple and then evolve along with the network and customer demand." In addition to the new technology products, Spyglass will offer a full range of consulting and custom engineering services to create complete end-to-end solutions for service providers. Specific solutions could include Spyglass Wireless Device Mosaic ports to the Windows CE, EPOC32, or other operating systems; integrating the Gateway and Application Servers with Spyglass Prism technology; or interfacing the system with carrier messaging, telephony services, and on-line account information and billing. According to Armstrong, strong demand from both telecommunications carriers and infrastructure providers for standards-based data solutions fueled the company's decision to build wireless-specific technologies that would leverage existing products. Industry and telecommunications company analysts predict that the market for wireless data services will grow as high as 400 million users by early in the next century. About Spyglass Spyglass (NASDAQ: SPYG) provides Internet expertise, software and services for making devices work with the Web. Particularly active in the cable and satellite television, wireless telecommunications, consumer electronics and office equipment markets, Spyglass solutions are used by market-leading companies including GTE, Sun Microsystems Java Software Division, NEC, Nokia, Thomson Consumer Electronics (RCA) and Xerox. Spyglass headquarters are located at 1240 East Diehl Rd., Naperville, Ill., 60563; phone: 630.245.6512; fax: 630.245.6693; press email inquiries: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.spyglass.com. -30- |
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