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Zi Corporation and UTStarcom China Sign Licensing Agreement
eZiText to be Featured on UTStarcom New PAS Models for Chinese Market
CALGARY, AB, June 12, 2003 - Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced that the company has signed a licensing agreement with UTStarcom China. Under the terms of the agreement, UTStarcom will use eZiText® text input technology for both the Chinese and English languages from Zi Corporation for UTStarcom-designed Personal Access System (PAS) handsets. The PAS handsets embedded with eZiText are expected to be launched for sale in China during the second quarter of 2003.
UTStarcom's PAS system is a new and emerging wireless communication network created as a more cost effective technology to traditional wireline and wireless communication networks and is particularly suited for densely-populated areas. According to a report in the Nikkei Business Daily, the number of PAS subscribers in China was 12 million at the end of 2002 with another 20 to 25 million subscribers expected to be added this year.
UTStarcom chose eZiText for their PAS handsets because it is a widely deployed solution that is proven to deliver superior ease of use for consumers, and its full featured and modular architecture system makes it easy to implement for quick time-to-market for device manufacturers, said John Yang, senior vice president of UTStarcom China.
"With the PAS network booming, particularly in China, we need to upgrade the quality of our input functionality, especially for short messaging service (SMS) applications, and eZiText allows us to do that," Yang said. "We are confident that PAS subscribers throughout China and all over Asia will enjoy the increased ease of use that eZiText offers in our handset products."
Gary Mendel, vice president of sales and marketing at Zi Corporation, said the licensing agreement with UTStarcom allows Zi Corporation to penetrate further into the fast growing PAS market.
"Our strategy is to target specific market segments and work with the leaders in those markets and UTStarcom is one of the most important providers of PAS equipment in China," Mendel said. "PAS is extremely popular in China and elsewhere in the world, and subscriptions are now approaching 20 million people. This licensing agreement allows us to become part of this important market segment."
Zi Corporation's text input solutions, eZiTap™ and eZiText, provide unique features to optimize text entry and language input on wireless communications devices. Incorporating eZiTap and eZiText into mobile devices enables consumer electronic manufacturers (OEMs and ODMs) and telecom carriers to provide consumers with richer, more personalized text input experiences.
About UTStarcom Inc.
Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Alameda, California, UTStarcom is a leading global provider of wireless and wireline access and IP switching solutions. The company designs, manufactures, sells, and installs an integrated suite of future-ready access network and next-generation switching solutions. We enable wireless and wireline operators in fast-growth markets worldwide to offer voice, data, and Internet access services rapidly and cost effectively by utilizing their existing infrastructure.
UTStarcom's products provide a seamless migration from wireline to wireless, from narrowband to broadband, and from circuit- to packet-based networks by employing "Next Generation Network Technology. Now." The company's customers include public telecommunications service providers that operate wireless and wireline voice and data networks in rapidly growing communications markets around the world. For more information about UTStarcom, visit the company's Web site at www.utstar.com.
About Zi Corporation
Zi Corporation (www.zicorp.com) is a technology company that delivers intelligent interface solutions to enhance the user experience of wireless and consumer technologies. The company's intelligent predictive text interfaces, eZiTap and eZiText, simplify text entry to provide consumers with easy interaction within short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. eZiNet™, Zi's new client/network based data indexing and retrieval solution increases the usability for data-centric devices by reducing the number of key strokes required to access multiple types of data resident on a device, a network or both. Zi supports its strategic partners and customers from offices in Asia, Europe and North America. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on the Nasdaq National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC).
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For more information:
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Allen & Caron Inc Jill Bertotti (investor inquiries) Phone: +1 (949) 474 4300 E-mail: jill@allencaron.com Allen & Caron Inc Len Hall (media inquiries) Phone: +1 (949) 474-4300 E-mail: len@allencaron.com |
Zi Corporation Dale Kearns Chief Financial Officer Phone: +1 (403) 233 8875 E-mail: investor@zicorp.com Website: www.zicorp.com |