America Online and Amstrad Sign Global Licensing Agreement for T9 Text Input Software; Amstrad to Enable Quick and Easy Text Entry on Mobile Phones with T9 Text Input

Business Wire, Feb 20, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

DULLES, Va. & ESSEX, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2001

America Online, Inc., the world's leader in interactive services, announced today it has licensed its T9 Text Input software to Amstrad plc, a telecommunications manufacturer located in Essex, England. With the agreement, Amstrad will incorporate T9 Text Input software for Chinese, Western European, Eastern European and other Latin-based languages into its mobile phones to enable the easy use of text-based mobile services such as SMS (short message service). The Chinese stroke-based and phonetic versions of T9 Text Input will be used in Amstrad's products sold into China and Taiwan.

"T9 Text Input is the leading solution for easy text entry on mobile phones and we look forward to incorporating the software into our mobile phones," said Sir Alan Sugar, Chairman of Amstrad plc. "By making text entry quick and easy, we believe our customers can more fully utilize text-based mobile services."

"We are excited to work with Amstrad to integrate T9 Text Input into their upcoming handsets," said Don Davidge, Vice President of AOL Mobile. "The use of text-based wireless services is growing tremendously and we believe T9 Text Input will make it quicker and easier for users of Amstrad mobile phones to use these applications."

About AOL Mobile's T9 Text Input

By incorporating T9 Text Input into mobile communications products, companies are solving the fundamental problem of how to quickly and easily type and send messages. Although each key on a telephone keypad can be interpreted in multiple ways - a single press on the "5" key could be "J," "K," or "L" - T9 Text Input uses an internal database to automatically scan possible variations to determine the correct word. For example, entering the word "call" into a mobile phone will take just four key presses with T9 Text Input rather than 10 key presses required by conventional "multi-tap" text entry.

In addition to Amstrad, current licensees of T9 Text Input include Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, Acer, Arima, Benefon, Bosch, Denso Wireless Systems America, Fujitsu, Hyundai Electronics, LG Electronics, Maxon Telecom, Memory Corporation, Mitsubishi, NEC, NeoPoint, Optimay, Panasonic, Pantech, Philips, Qualcomm, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sendo, Sewon, Shintom, Sony, Telit, Toshiba and Voxson.

Language Availability

T9 Text Input is available in 21 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. T9 Text Input supports Simplified and Traditional stroke-based Chinese, as well as phonetic Pinyin and BoPoMoFo text input. Language support is continually expanding.

About Amstrad

Amstrad, located in Essex, England, was founded in 1968. The company designs, develops, markets, and distributes telecommunications, satellite and other consumer electronic products. Amstrad has recently developed a very small, light GSM dual band mobile phone using the latest technology chipset. On February 12, 2001 Amstrad announced that it had secured a far reaching long term technology partnership with Haier CCT, a Chinese joint venture company formed between CCT Telecom in Hong Kong and the Haier Group, China's number one domestic appliance manufacturing company. Under the agreement Haier CCT is the exclusive manufacturer and has the exclusive rights to sell the phone in the Chinese and Taiwanese markets.

Amstrad, which also has offices in Hong Kong, launched the first combined fax, telephone and answering machine, the first PDA, the first mass market Satellite Receiver/Dish package and the first integrated Satellite Receiver/Decoder for Sky TV. Amstrad is also widely recognized as the company that brought low cost mass market PCs to the European market. Other company innovations include the e-m@iler, a personal communication center launched last year. Amstrad announced in 2000 that it was the first company to have received full type approval from BSkyB for its new DRX200 Digital Satellite Receiver, incorporating the new ST5512 chipset.

About America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.