Korean manufacturer to use eZiText(TM) to differentiate CDMA product
CALGARY, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ - 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).
Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The information in this
press release is based on Zi Corporation's current expectation and assumptions, and is
subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those anticipated. Such risks include, among others, general business
and economic conditions and competitive actions as well as the risks and uncertainties
referred to in Zi Corporation's 20-F for the most recent calendar year.
SOURCE Zi Corporation
/CONTACT: Randy Henderson, C.A., Zi Corporation, Vice President, Finance,
Phone: (403) 231-4580, investor@zicorp.com, www.zicorp.com; Sin Jae Park,
Wide Telecom, Inc., Principal Engineer, R&D Planning Team, Phone: 82 31 709
5455, sjpark@widetel.co.kr, www.widetel.co.kr; Steve Kim, Wide Telecom,
Inc., Manager, Overseas Sales and Marketing, Phone: 82 31 789 9041,
steve@widetel.co.kr, www.widetel.co.kr;
To request a free copy of this organization's annual report, please go to
www.newswire.ca and click on reports@cnw./
(ZIC. ZICA)
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