PHONE.COM AND SNAPTRACK TEAM TO PROVIDE HIGH-PERFORMANCE WIRELESS LOCATION SOLUTIONS FOR MOBILE E-COMMERCE & VALUE-ADDED LOCATION SERVICES
Effort to Result in Wireless Assisted GPS-Based Products for Global Location Market
PCIA
Global Xchange, CHICAGO (September 27, 2000) -- Phone.com,
Inc. (Nasdaq: PHCM), a leading provider of mobile Internet software,
applications and services, and SnapTrack Inc., pioneer of Wireless Assisted GPS™
location systems and a wholly owned subsidiary of QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq:
QCOM), today announced that they are teaming to develop and market SnapTrack's
SnapSmart™ location server software and Phone.com’s Mobile Location Server (MLS)
platform in a coordinated manner for the wireless industry. The companies will
work together to ensure that the two products are interoperable and will support
each other’s efforts to market the combined solution to wireless carriers
worldwide.
The Phone.com™ Mobile Location Server enables wireless network operators to
take advantage of a unique aspect of the mobile network – the ability to
determine the location of the phone. The MLS platform provides a universal
application interface for developers, along with extensive end-user privacy
management functionality. SnapTrack's SnapSmart location server software
provides highly accurate location determination. The combination of these two
technologies affords an integrated, end-to-end solution for wireless service
providers.
"By working together, Phone.com and SnapTrack will be able to combine
SnapTrack's leading wireless location server software with our Mobile Location
Server to provide a very compelling mobile location solution offering to our
carrier customers," said Michel Quazza, vice president of product marketing
for Phone.com. "We intend to position ourselves as the foremost provider of
carrier-class location solutions to wireless operators worldwide. We see mobile
e-commerce and location-based services as a great new market opportunity for
wireless operators around the world. We believe that highly accurate location
information will be the enabler of a whole new range of lucrative value-added
services, such as mobile information services and location relevant advertising,
as well as mobile e-commerce for consumers on the go."
The collaboration demonstrates Phone.com's commitment to providing enhanced
mobile Internet capabilities and applications to its customers, and leverages
SnapTrack's implementation experience and resources, including those of its
parent company, QUALCOMM, in the wireless location field. Financial terms of the
transaction were not disclosed.
"We’re very excited to be collaborating with Phone.com on this project,
as it is a highly innovative company with global reach and a tremendous list of
partners and customers," said Steve Poizner, president of SnapTrack. "We
believe that the combined SnapTrack/Phone.com solution will provide a
best-of-breed mobile location solution to wireless operators around the world.
When the SnapTrack/Phone.com solution is coupled with highly integrated chipset
products for cellular phones, such as QUALCOMM's MSM3300™ multimedia Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) product, many new services become possible,
including mobile yellow pages and mobile e-commerce applications, and personal
and enterprise location services. For example, stranded motorists could send
their location directly to an auto club, or to their families. Or consumers
could get walking directions to their favorite fast food restaurant right from
where they’re standing. And in the enterprise world, companies could use this
product to track their sales or delivery teams and more closely coordinate their
efforts."
SnapTrack's Personal GPS™ wireless location solutions fuse the intelligence
and power of networks in the mobile environment with the accuracy and coverage
of the Global Positioning System. SnapTrack's solutions are based on its
Wireless Assisted GPS and QUALCOMM's gpsOne™ technology, and improve upon
conventional GPS by combining information from GPS satellites and wireless
networks to accurately and reliably pinpoint a wireless phone. While traditional
GPS receivers may take several minutes to provide a location fix, SnapTrack's
solutions generally locate callers within a few seconds. With SnapTrack's
Location Indoors™ capability, callers are typically located to within 3-20
meters in a wide range of challenging call environments where other GPS-based
wireless location systems fail to perform, including inside houses and moving
vehicles, under heavy foliage, and in urban street canyons.
SnapTrack's wireless location technology products permit the design of
cellular phones, pagers, PDAs, and other wireless devices that operate in
multiple GPS navigation modes, allowing out-of-network location coverage and a
variety of thin-client applications. SnapTrack's solutions require no additional
cell sites or modifications to existing network equipment, and are designed to
have minimal impact on cost and handset form factor. Furthermore, SnapTrack's
technology is air-interface neutral and is applicable in any two-way wireless
system: cellular/PCS, satellite, or paging; 800/900 MHz or 1800/1900 MHz; GSM,
CDMA, TDMA, PDC or 3G air interfaces. SnapTrack technology is featured in the
industry's first fully integrated wireless position location solutions, the
QUALCOMM MSM3300 and MSM5100™ chipsets.
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