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Zi Corporation's eZiText® Chosen as Text Messaging Standard for Legend's New Lenovo Smart Phone Products
Legend adopts eZiText for Microsoft Windows Mobile – Pocket PC Platform
CALGARY, AB, November 3, 2003 – Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced that its eZiText® predictive text technology has been chosen by two subsidiaries of Legend Group Limited (HKSE: stock code 992) as the text messaging standard for its advanced smart phone product line under the new Lenovo brand. Legend, the largest information technology company in the People's Republic of China, plans to launch the first Lenovo smart phone within this quarter with two more models expected to enter the market in 2004.
Legend, known in the Chinese market for innovation and pioneering technology in mobile handset products, selected eZiText for inclusion in its new smart phone products because it offers users a quick, easy and personalized text input experience and because Zi provides a high level of local support and service.
The operating system for the Lenovo line of smart phones is the Microsoft Windows Mobile – Pocket PC platform and the new smart phone will offer a wide variety of functionality along with eZiText, including a large color screen, handwriting recognition, an easy connection to external camera and multiple sending of multimedia messaging service (MMS). Legend has initially embedded the first smart phone model with simplified Chinese for all the applications on the phone available for use in the "flip closed" mode.
Gary Mendel, Zi Corporation's Vice President, Sales and Marketing, said the agreement underscores the relationship Zi enjoys with the Chinese leader in information products and mobile handsets. Zi established a relationship with Legend more than three years ago with the licensing of eZiText for use in Legend's set-top boxes for interactive televisions. This relationship was expanded at the end of last year with the selection and integration of eZiText in Legend's mobile handsets.
"The fact that Legend chose eZiText for the international rollout of their new smart phone products validates the superiority of our technology," Mendel said. "We are very pleased to be working alongside a company known throughout China for its pioneering products, and a company poised to become a major player in the worldwide smart phone market."
About Legend Group Ltd.
Established in 1984, Legend Group Ltd. is the largest diversified IT company in China. Recently, Legend announced the change of its logo to Lenovo. The new brand Lenovo, which means innovation and creation, is part of a new initiative to raise the company's profile for all their products in the international market For more information, please visit the web site at www.lenovo.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, allow users to personalize the device and simplify text entry providing consumers with easy interaction for 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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Investor Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Jill Bertotti (949) 474-4300 jill@allencaron.com |
Zi Corporation Dale Kearns, Chief Financial Officer (403) 233-8875 investor@zicorp.com |
Media Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Len Hall (949) 474-4300 len@allencaron.com |