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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Kaliico who wrote (12561)9/22/1999 7:59:00 AM
From: Bouf  Respond to of 57584
 
HOT NEWS ON ZD ..AGAIN!!

Wednesday September 22 2:35 AM ET

Ziff-Davis Plans Online Learning Community
By Duncan Martell

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Ziff-Davis Inc. (NYSE:ZD - news), owner of the popular ZDNet Web site and best-selling PC magazine, is placing a bet on the growing number of virtual communities with plans to start a for-profit online learning community.

Called SmartPlanet.com, Ziff-Davis is expected to unveil the effort Wednesday with a goal of opening the full site in October. Initially, membership will be free but starting in October, people can subscribe for $99 a year and gain access to myriad online courses.

Backed by $10 million from Ziff-Davis, it will get at least that much next year as it adds more courses and links with more partners in the media, Internet service provider and e-commerce companies, said Chris Dobbrow, president and chief executive of SmartPlanet, in an interview.

SmartPlanet joins other virtual communities that cater to specific interests or hobbies, such as women's-related site iVillage, babycenter.com, owned by eToys Inc. and theglobe.com. It will also face competition from other already established online learning sites such as Learn2.com and Click2learn.com., owned by Asymetric Learning Systems Inc.

The site, the idea for which was conceived only this year and is an extension of Ziff-Davis' online computer learning site ZDU business unit, will offer a linked set of pursuits such as arts and society, body and mind, home and family, professional development and others.

The ZDU effort, begun in 1995, now has more than 100,000 registered users who pay $70 a year for online courses related to technology and computing, Dobbrow said, who joins SmartPlanet after 13 years with Ziff-Davis.

``This was very successful in a particular area of interest and based on our research we think it will be portable to all the other categories that we'll be expanding into,' Dobbrow said.

Based on Ziff-Davis' experience and its own projections, Dobbrow said SmartPlanet expects by October 2000 to be at a run-rate of one million registered users who generate $100 each in revenue. Ziff-Davis plans to generate sales through annual membership fees, fees that users pay on a per-course basis, and e-commerce sales.

By hooking up with media companies, Internet service providers and others, SmartPlanet will be advertised on those companies' sites some will also become investors in SmartPlanet, Dobbrow said. He added that an initial public offering of the Foster City, Calif.-based firm is clearly a possibility.

``We've had a lot of interest from potential strategic investors, we're considering a couple of different investors now and it could happen as soon as the end of this year,' Dobbrow said.

He declined to comment on the potential investors, adding that with the backing from Ziff-Davis and the strategic investors, it was unlikely the roster would include the usual suspects such as venture capital firms.

``There's an enormous opportunity in this space,' Dobbrow said, citing projections from Forrester Research that by 2003 business will sell $108 billion of goods and services to consumers online. Already, the annual education market -- higher education, kindergarten through high school, training and higher education -- is $740 billion, according to market research firm Eduventures.

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To: Kaliico who wrote (12561)9/22/1999 8:24:00 AM
From: Rande Is  Respond to of 57584
 
OMPT news: Motorola Announces the Commercial Availability of the L7089 GSM Tri-Band Phone Through Omnipoint Communications

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced today the commercial availability of the L7089 GSM tri-band phone through Omnipoint Communications. The L7089 Digital World Phone is the first ever GSM Tri-Band mobile phone capable of operating on GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 bands in Europe, Asia and the Americas*.

"We are thrilled to offer consumers Motorola's GSM tri-band phone in collaboration with Omnipoint Communications," said Denise Gibson, Vice President of Motorola's Strategic Alliances, of Motorola's Personal Communications Sector. "The L7089 phone is a feature-rich, wireless phone that packs the power of cutting-edge communications technologies into a palm- sized device to help give users the ultimate lightweight solution to stay connected virtually anytime on the go."

"This new Motorola tri-band phone does more than simply add to Omnipoint's broad line of GSM handsets," said George Schmitt, President of Omnipoint Communications. "For the first time, it gives our international roaming customers the choice of using any of our GSM roaming partners around the world, regardless of whether the network operates on 900, 1800 MHz or 1900 MHz frequencies. It's another example of how GSM handsets are getting smaller, lighter and better."

The L7089 phones weighs as little as 108 grams, offers up to 210 minutes of talk time or up to 150 hours of standby time*. The L7089 phone offers a variety of features including: GSM Tri-Band Technology; Voice Activation; VoiceNote(TM) Voice Recorder**; IrDA(R) Wireless Data Connectivity; Starfish TrueSync(R) software***; VibraCall(R) alert; and an Integrated Headset.

Motorola is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. These include: Software-enhanced wireless telephone, two-way radio, messaging and satellite communications products and systems, as well as networking and Internet-access products, for consumers, network operators, and commercial, government and industrial customers. Embedded semiconductor solutions for customers in the consumer, networking and computing, transportation, and wireless communications markets. Embedded electronic systems for automotive, communications, imaging, manufacturing systems, computer and consumer markets. Sales in 1998 were $29.4 billion.

Omnipoint currently provides advanced wireless communications services in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Southern Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Maryland. It intends to provide those services in additional areas.

Omnipoint is a founding member of the North American GSM Alliance, a group of North America's leading digital wireless Personal Communication Services companies. Using GSM communications technology, Alliance companies provide superior voice clarity, unparalleled security and leading-edge wireless voice, data and fax features for customers, whether at home, away or abroad. Other GSM Alliance members include: Aerial Communications, Inc.; Airadigm Communications, Inc.; BellSouth Mobility DCS; Conestoga Wireless Company; Cook Inlet PCS; DIGIPH PCS; Iowa Wireless; Microcell Telecommunications Inc.; NPI Wireless; Pacific Bell Wireless; Powertel, Inc.; STPCS Joint Venture, LLC; Western Wireless Corp.; and Wireless 2000 PCS. The GSM Alliance works in cooperation with North American GSM equipment manufacturers: Siemens, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Nokia and Ericsson.

Omnipoint Communications is a subsidiary of Omnipoint Corporation (Nasdaq: OMPT). Founded in 1987, the parent company is a leader in commercializing PCS. In addition to Omnipoint Communications, Omnipoint Corporation also includes Omnipoint Technologies, Inc. a leading developer and supplier of wireless communication technologies, products and engineering services. As a pioneer in the industry, Omnipoint Technologies is on the forefront of developing and integrating advanced wireless technologies, such as GSM, GPRS packet data, EDGE, positioning and Internet access. Omnipoint Technologies also supplies the Eagle(TM) One wireless data communications module for integration into product applications and designs.

All trademarks identified as such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc., with the exception of Starfish and TrueSync which are trademarks of Starfish Software, Inc., an independent wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved.

* Network and subscription dependent feature. Not available in all

areas. Where roaming agreement are in place.

** Use of this function is subject to varying State and Federal laws

regarding privacy of phone conversations.

*** Designed to synchronize with basic features of the initial release of

many popular Personal Information Management (PIM) software and

hardware products.

SOURCE Motorola, Inc.