Openwave Announces Support for Mobile TV
Agreements With IceTV and NEXAGE Bring Mobile TV Onto MIDAS Handsets
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Openwave Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:OPWV), the leading independent provider of open software products and services for the communications and media industry, today announced its plans to co-market and support mobile television services integrated with the Openwave® Mobile Integrated Dynamic Application System (MIDAS) environment. As part of Openwave's mobile TV initiative, the company is engaging with two mobile television providers, IceTV, who delivers live TV broadcasts and custom programming developed specifically for handhelds, and Nexage, a leading wireless and multimedia software and services company that recently announced its PhoneCast mobile video solution. The companies will work with Openwave to enable operators to deliver real-time and video on demand to MIDAS handsets.
"Mobile TV services offered through MIDAS, will afford operators the benefits of a high quality mobile television service that is easily accessible and can be personalized based on the preferences of various consumer segments," said Olivier Bartholot, head of the client business unit at Openwave. "We look forward to further developing the relationships with both IceTV and Nexage and ensuring that we enable our operator customers to bring to market mobile television services that are rich, compelling and easy to use."
MIDAS provides a flexible user experience layer that links to underlying handset resources, enabling a powerful new way to design and deliver services, like mobile television. IceTV, which stands for Interactive Communications and Entertainment TV, enables mobile phone users to watch their favorite local channels and cable television shows live on their mobile devices, anywhere there is a wireless data signal available. Nexage's PhoneCast software platform offers a mobile video solution for operators, content providers and media companies, allowing customers to watch live TV, live events and sportscasts, and video on demand content on their mobile phones globally.
"We're excited to be deploying a high-quality, personalized mobile television experience that is simple for operators to implement and will allow broadcasters to increase viewership and offer targeted interactive marketing to their advertisers," said Bill Stack, President and CEO of IceTV. "Working with Openwave to include our service on MIDAS handsets will enable us to bring our mobile television services to market faster and integrate with operators easier."
"With its proven experience in bringing mobile content to the mass market, Openwave will be an asset to us as we look to bring our mobile television services to operators around the world," said Devkumar Gandhi, CEO of NEXAGE. "The marriage of our two solutions would be a natural fit for operators who are looking to quickly deploy powerful new entertainment services, like mobile television, live events and video on demand to mass market multimedia phones."
MIDAS applications are written in easy-to-use script and markup language, and can be delivered on the handset over-the-air (OTA). The key benefit of MIDAS for operators is that they retain full control of the service experience, leveraging both handset and network resources. Similarly, with MIDAS, handset manufacturers can flexibly mix and match features and interfaces to deliver devices that best meet operator requirements. By including MIDAS on a handset, manufacturers will help operators deliver more customized service interfaces which deliver dramatic improvements in terms of responsiveness and ease of use.
About Openwave
Openwave Systems Inc. is the leading independent provider of open software solutions for the communications and media industry. Openwave software solutions are designed to enable customers to accelerate ARPU by rapidly launching value-added communication, information and entertainment services across networks and devices, and comprise a broad range of solutions including content delivery, messaging, music, video, and location. Openwave is a global company headquartered in Redwood City, California. For more information please visit www.openwave.com.
About IceTV
IceTV (www.icetv.net) is based in Phoenix, Ariz. and is a growing provider of digital media solutions, offering cable networks and broadcast TV stations the ability to expand their viewership with the distribution of live TV to mobile devices. IceTV delivers its live TV service and all related on-demand and made-for-mobile content over carriers' existing 2.5G and 3G wireless networks and offers unique capabilities for highly-targeted linear and interactive advertising.
About Nexage
NEXAGE (www.nexage.com) is a Seattle based wireless and multimedia software and services company, focused on developing and implementing Mobile Video Solution, Multimedia and Mobile payment technologies and services.
NEXAGE offers PhoneCast, a Mobile Video Solution that allows Wireless operators, Content providers and Media companies to offer Video Streaming and Mobile TV services to their customers.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements relating to expectations, plans or prospects for Openwave Systems Inc. that are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of Openwave's management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In particular, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: (a) the ability to make changes in business strategy, development plans and product offerings to respond to the needs of our current, new and potential customers, suppliers and strategic partners; (b) risks associated with the development and licensing of software generally, including potential delays in software development and technical difficulties that may be encountered in the development or use of our software; (c) the ability to successfully partner with other companies; and (d) technological changes and developments.
For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the risk factors discussed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including but not limited to the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2005, and any subsequently filed reports. All documents also are available through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system (EDGAR) at www.sec.gov or from Openwave's Web site at www.openwave.com.
NOTE: Openwave and the Openwave logo are trademarks of Openwave Systems Inc. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
For more information please contact:
Openwave Systems Inc.
Vikki Herrera
Public Relations
Vikki.herrera@openwave.com
Tel: 650-480-6753
Openwave (Europe) Ltd.
Sally Bate
Public Relations
sally.bate@openwave.com
Tel: +44 (0)1442 458811
Source: Openwave Systems Inc.
CONTACT: Vikki Herrera of Openwave Systems Inc., +1-650-480-6753, or Vikki.herrera@openwave.com, or Sally Bate of Openwave (Europe) Ltd.,
+44 (0)1442 458811, or sally.bate@openwave.com
Web site: www.openwave.com/
http://www.nexage.com/
http://www.icetv.net/
