CALGARY, Dec. 21 /CNW/ - Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSE: ZIC) has
signed a licensing and royalty agreement with Korean manufacturer, Wide
Telecom, Inc. to integrate eZiText(TM) into CDMA handsets destined for sale in
Latin America and Asia Pacific.
"Zi Corporation is focused on providing intelligent interface solutions
for third generation technologies," says Gary Kovacs, president, Zi
Corporation. "eZiText(TM) guides users to their intended word with a minimum
of key-presses, allowing consumers to interact with data on any platform or
any application that requires text-input."
As a result of a recent acquisition, Wide Telecom is licensed to use
Qualcomm's CDMA technology.
"Wide Telecom intends to focus aggressively on America, particularly on
the United States and Brazil, which are very attractive markets for CDMA,"
said Sin Jae Park, principal engineer, R&D Planning Group, Wide Telecom. "By
partnering with Zi Corporation, Wide Telecom can use superior text-input and
language capabilities to differentiate our product. eZiText(TM) has
market-specific language databases that allow us to target the American
market."
Zi Corporation's offering of market-specific language databases includes
Brazilian Portuguese. Brazil has one of the largest cellular subscriber bases
in Latin America with over 18 million subscribers and a growth rate of 95 per
cent for the year ended June 2000. Zi Corporation's Brazilian Portuguese
database is designed specifically to meet the needs of the 150 million
speakers of Brazilian Portuguese.
At its establishment in 1996, Wide Telecom was principally engaged in the
design, manufacture and marketing of electronic pagers. The company recently
advanced into the design and manufacture of wireless handsets including
digital cellular and PCS devices. Wide Telecom and SK Telecom, one of Korea's
leading domestic service providers, have partnered to jointly develop handsets
for the new IMT-2000 platform. This consortium, which SK Telecom is leading,
has recently succeeded in winning an IMT-2000 service license in Korea. Both
SK Telecom and Wide Telecom are heading for the new era of synchronous
wireless communication. Wide Telecom is a publicly traded company, listed on
the KOSDAQ board.
Zi Corporation is a market-driven technology company focused on
developing and delivering intelligent interface solutions and services to the
wireless and consumer Internet spaces. The company's core technology product,
eZiText(TM) connects people to short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web
browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. The
company's service division provides market-leading engineering design in
Bluetooth, VoIP and man-machine interface. Zi supports its strategic partners
from offices in Calgary, Beijing, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Shenzhen,
Stockholm and Tokyo. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on
the NASDAQ National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC). |
