News release |
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Zi expands eZiText™ licensing agreement to support asian language interactive TV for Liberate
eZiText™ simplifies text entry for TV-based e-mail, chat and instant messaging
CALGARY, AB (December 18, 2001) - Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSE: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, has expanded its licensing agreement of eZiText™ technology with Liberate Technologies to include Korean and Japanese in addition to the existing Chinese license.
Using eZiText™, Zi's predictive input technology, enables Liberate to bolster its double-byte character support for interactive television in the Asia-Pacific region. Zi's eZiText™ will enhance iTV applications running on the Liberate® TV Platform™ software with the ability to quickly and efficiently accommodate text input in the licensed languages.
"eZiText™, Zi's predictive text input technology, operates in over 32 written languages and is suitable for a variety of platforms where fast and efficient text input is required, including remote control text entry and keyboard predictive text entry," said Michael Lobsinger, CEO, Zi Corporation. "With the interactive television market growing rapidly in Asia, Zi is looking forward to providing our expertise in character-based languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese to Liberate's market-leading interactive television solutions."
Integrating Zi's eZiText™ predictive input solution with the Liberate TV Platform software gives users of Liberate-enabled iTV services a faster and simpler means to enter characters in Korean, Chinese and Japanese. This significantly improves the usability of any TV-based application on the Liberate platform utilizing text input, such as e-mail, chat, instant messaging and t-commerce. Viewers will be able to enter information using the 10-key number pad on a standard television remote control, an input method highly familiar to mobile phone users in Asian markets. Additionally, the predictive nature of eZiText™ eliminates the need to tap multiple times to reach characters, as the software predicts words before all letters are pressed.
About Zi Corporation
Zi Corporation is a market-driven technology company delivering intelligent interface solutions to enhance the user experience of wireless and consumer technologies. The company's core technology product, eZiText™ connects people to short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. Zi Services 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).
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For more information:
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Media Inquiries: Shawn Kelly Zi Corporation Corporate Communications Manager Phone: 403 537 9770 E-mail: skelly@zicorp.com Website: www.zicorp.com |
Investor Inquiries: Dale Kearns Zi Corporation Chief Financial Officer Phone: 403 233 8875 E-mail: investor@zicorp.com Website: www.zicorp.com |