Article (PRNewswire): Spyglass Establishes Mobile Data Practice to Focus on Delivering the InternetTo Wireless Devices
Company Strategy Includes Providing Differentiable, Customized Solutions Based On WAP and Content Re-purposing with the Spyglass Prism Content Delivery And
Transformation Platform
NAPERVILLE, Ill., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- On the dawn of a new millennium, the technology industry is humming from the excitement of establishing the communication of the future. This future, summed up in two words, is wireless Internet. Among the leading companies helping to promote fast and efficient delivery of the Internet to mobile devices is Spyglass Inc. (Nasdaq: SPYG) who today announced the establishment of a formal group dedicated solely to developing the mobile data market segment.
(Photo: newscom.com )
Spyglass made a strategic decision to strengthen its focus on the mobile data market, and to dedicate more resources to grow its team of mobile data experts, to best reflect the growing market demand for wireless Internet. The Spyglass Mobile Data practice is committed to enabling the world's premier content providers, value-added service providers, service operators and device manufacturers to deliver wireless Internet services and applications to a variety of mobile devices, such as phones, PDAs and other handheld devices.
The most recent addition to the mobile data practice is Herb Williams, who will work in a newly created position, as director of mobile data services. Williams came to Spyglass with more than 10 years of market and product development experience in the wireless and telecommunications industry, with leading companies including Electronic Data Systems (EDS), AT&T and Sprint. Williams, along with Jack Armstrong, vice president of mobile data services, will work on strategic planning and managing key partnerships and relationships as Spyglass begins expanding its presence within the international mobile data market. Together, Armstrong and Williams lead a dedicated team of solutions architects and engineers, who are working to provide customized, extensible mobile data solutions that leverage Spyglass technology, professional services and industry standards. Spyglass provides a unique combination of Internet and Wireless expertise, assisting companies to bridge the gap between these technologies.
"Spyglass' value comes from our years of experience in providing customized solutions to the information appliance market. In addition to helping device manufacturers Web-enable various devices, Spyglass is also equipped to help service operators and content providers to create an overall Internet content delivery strategy," Armstrong said. "Our Spyglass Prism technology enables content to be accessible from all Web-enabled devices, and this will be increasingly important as we see more and more new mobile devices being introduced to the market. Also, the de facto acceptance of WAP as the worldwide standard for delivering the Internet to wireless devices will help open more doors for Spyglass."
The wireless industry, along with Spyglass, has promoted the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) as the enabler to making Internet content available to the mass-market wireless user. WAP is an industry-wide specification to develop applications and communication protocols to standardize the way wireless devices access Internet applications, including email, the World Wide Web and instant messaging. Spyglass, a member of the WAP Forum, fully supports the standard, and offers solutions that leverage this standard.
This past summer, Spyglass partnered with Nokia to begin offering their WAP microbrowser. In addition to acting as an exclusive reseller of the WAP microbrowser, Spyglass will also perform customizations and development for device manufacturers who will implement WAP into their overall wireless solution. Spyglass will also offer network operators and content providers a chance to deliver Internet content to wireless devices using Spyglass Prism, which, in addition to re-purposing content and images to meet the specific viewing and processing restrictions of a device, can transform HTML to WML on-the-fly.
This past year, Spyglass announced agreements with a number of leading companies, including Fujitsu @nifty, Nokia Telecommunications, Riverbed Technologies, Seiko Epson and Telenor Mobile to help deliver wireless Internet solutions to their customers.
-- Fujitsu @nifty: Japan's largest Internet Service Provider, @nifty,
launched its "Mobile Fitter" Web portal for wireless device users with
Spyglass Prism, making the delivery of Web content fast and efficient.
-- Nokia Telecommunications: The world's second leading manufacturer of
mobile phones, Nokia licensed Spyglass Prism to use with their Artus
Wireless Data Enhancer, to make Internet access truly accessible for
wireless device users.
-- Riverbed Technologies: Riverbed is popular for its ScoutWare
synchronization technology used by mobile workers to access corporate
applications from a back-end server using a handheld device. Riverbed
licensed Spyglass Prism to create ScoutWeb, a mobile enterprise
platform that will allow access to the Internet or intranet so workers
can send and receive mission-critical business information from a
wireless device.
-- Seiko Epson: A leading Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer,
Seiko Epson licensed Spyglass Prism to help deliver the Internet and
location-specific applications via a Global Positioning System (GPS)
and network to Locatio, a cellular phone that includes a Web browser,
email, and other personal applications. As an example, Spyglass Prism
can resize map image data that is sent to the GPS function.
-- Telenor Mobile: The market leader in mobile communications in Norway,
Telenor Mobile licensed Spyglass Prism to provide their customers high- speed Internet access without the high cost. With Spyglass Prism,
Internet data is optimized to the display capabilities of mobile
devices to minimize the amount of data being transmitted and enable
faster downloading of information.
The convergence of wireless communications and the Internet is leading the way to a time when more non-PC devices will access the Internet than will PC devices. International Data Corp. (IDC) projects that, in addition to laptop computers, more than 55 million non-PC devices will be connected to the Internet by 2002; a year later, non-PC Internet connections are expected to outnumber those from PCs. With this prediction, the next millennium promises to be an exciting time for Spyglass. With the wide-scale deployment of WAP- compliant technology, more devices will be capable of supporting Internet- based applications and services; and this means more opportunities for Spyglass to help its partners develop customized applications for end-users who will look for efficient delivery of the Internet via wireless devices.
About Spyglass (Nasdaq: SPYG) is a leading provider of strategic Internet consulting, software and professional services that enable content providers, service operators and device manufacturers to capitalize on the potential of the Internet. Market-leading companies using Spyglass solutions include GTE, General Instrument, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sony, Thomson Consumer Electronics, WorldGate and Xerox. Spyglass is headquartered in Naperville, Ill. and has regional offices in Lexington, Mass., Silicon Valley, Calif., London and Tokyo. Visit spyglass.com for more information.
December 1999
Spyglass and the Spyglass logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spyglass, Inc., in the United States and other countries. Mosaic is a trademark of the University of Illinois. (Other technologies and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.) This release contains information about management's future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward- looking statements as a result of various important factors that are discussed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 1998, which is on file with the SEC.
SOURCE Spyglass Inc.
CO: Spyglass Inc.
ST: Illinois
IN: CPR
SU: PDT
12/16/1999 10:00 EST prnewswire.com |
