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 Gemplus
Enters Mobile Entertainment Market Through SIM'Xplore
Gemplus partners with four key players in the mobile
entertainment space to provide operators with innovative applications
for their subscribers.
- Gemplus demonstrates technology leadership in the
end-user mobile services market
- Gemplus partners with Realtime, Atlas Telecom Mobile
(ATM), Bantry Technologies and Digital Bridges to offer operators a
range of mobile entertainment services (mobile gaming, instant messaging,
news and music)
- SIM-based services proven to increase SMS1
traffic via SIM Toolkit and boost service penetration
Luxembourg, 3 October 2002: Gemplus (Paris Euronet: Euroclear
5768 and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions,
announces the addition of four key partners to its Wireless Partner Program,
SIM'Xplore, in order to offer SIM-enabled services for mobile entertainment.
Analyst firm BWCS estimates that by 2007, there will be more than 200
million mobile subscribers regularly playing games on their handsets,
generating annual revenues of some US$7.76 billion.
Therefore, operators need to adopt a more strategic stance on value-added
services. SIM'Xplore applications come with proven business cases designed
to help operators generate more traffic, reduce churn and increase their
ARPU2 through a varied service offering.
These partnerships will develop and deliver to operators a range of data
services for mobile entertainment that are ready-to-use, user-friendly
and cost-effective, be it gaming, multimedia, dating or chatting.
The SIM card has an important role as an enabler of these services. The
SIM Toolkit (STK) menu is a simplified user interface, which dramatically
reduces the "click stream" to access content and thus significantly
increases service performance and SMS traffic. In addition, the Over The
Air (OTA) channel enables operators to push and update services remotely
and with added convenience.
"In order to launch mobile data services, operators need to rely
on strong partnerships and proven business models to attract subscribers
with pre-packaged entertainment services. They need to reinforce their
privileged relationship with their subscribers while boosting SMS traffic
and increasing ARPU" said Jerome Nadel, Vice President, Telecom Business
Unit, Gemplus. "The SIM'Xplore Wireless Partner Program answers the
need for a structured link between operators and content providers. Based
around the SIM, it is the ideal platform for service deployment in the
Mobile Telecommunication market".
Realtime
Realtime and Gemplus have been working together for many years on providing
SIM-embedded applications via SMS. Realtime's focus is to build strong
and profitable mobile communities. "Our experience shows that operators
need to focus on end-user value and the ease of use if they want to ensure
uptake, and increase ARPU from launching mobile services. The Realtime-Gemplus
partnership meets this with an offer integrating leading SIM technology
and the best within mobile entertainment", says Jesper Lindhardt,
Vice President of Sales, Realtime. "We are pleased to add that early
results already show an exceptional increase of more than 250% in the
amount of SMS traffic on the network."
Atlas Telecom Mobile (ATM)
Atlas Telecom Mobile's strength lies in the capability to provide the
Mobile Network Operator with a full end-to-end package. From ATM's content
server giving access to a wide range of entertainment and information
services to the sending of the SMS/MMS through its own SMSC, ATM's content
is available through scratch cards as well as STK menus. "We feel
that quality of content is critical to the successful implementation of
mobile data services, and it is through the SIM channel that we can best
approach the end-user" said Paul Forostowsky, CEO, Atlas Telecom
Mobile.
Bantry Technologies
Bantry Technologies focus on the gaming, betting and messaging side of
Mobile Entertainment. "Our games and betting applications need to
be easily accessed from a range of different devices (Handset, PC, Laptop,
etc) and therefore need to be interoperable. This is why the Java CardTM
and SIM Toolkit are at the heart of our strategy" said Patrick Trane,
CEO, Bantry Technologies. "Partnering with Gemplus was the ideal
solution to enable us to offer our applications to mobile operators and
their subscribers".
Digital Bridges
With over a billion mobile phones currently in circulation and handsets
becoming progressively more advanced, Digital Bridges see mobile entertainment
quickly entering the mass market. The current generation of mobile phones
already features bigger screens, colour, Java® technology processing
capabilities and faster connection speeds, which are transforming mobile
handsets from a pure communications tool to an ultra portable, personalised
gaming platform. Embedding a path to gaming applications onto a SIM provides
an enormous shortcut to consumer awareness and usage of the entertainment
services. "While Gemplus provides easier and user-friendly access
to mobile data applications, Digital Bridges supplies valuable entertainment
content," said Brian Greasley, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Bridges.
"The benefits we expect to see from this collaboration include enhanced
services and significant traffic increases driven by excellent content
and smart technology."
About Realtime:
Realtime is the leading European provider of mobile communities. The company
provides mobile operators and media companies with powerful community
tools, integrating the best within mobile messaging, multimedia and gaming.
With an impressive track record, the company is highly experienced in
building, operating and hosting wireless data services across browsing
and access technologies. Realtime offers access to a high-performance
platform upon which the company hosts single or multi-user applications
available through all available technologies: SMS, SIM Tool Kit, MMS,
WAP, voice, web and TV. Realtime communities are designed to mesh with
the behavior and preferences of the end-user. The complete turnkey infrastructure
enables Realtime customers to rapidly respond to market demands for advanced
value added mobile services, and to catch the wireless revenue opportunities
now. This positions Realtime as a preferred partner for network operators
and media companies.
About Atlas Telecom Mobile
ATLAS TELECOM MOBILE (ATM) is an SMS/MMS content aggregator and SMS carrier
which offers a complete range of solutions for Wireless Network Operators,
and businesses working within the mass market wireless sector. The products
and services portfolio developed by ATM, which includes SMS/MMS prepaid
services, applications for SIM cards and inter-SMSC router capacity, -
are all designed to enable customers and partners to deliver value added
services to their customers and in turn generate extra revenues.
ATM is a subsidiary of Atlas Telecom Holdings, which provides a complete
range of wholesale voice, data and Internet services, ATM operates through
IP and SS7-C7 networks, over 500 WNO (Wireless Network Operator).
About Bantry Technologies
Bantry Technologies is a company located in Dublin, Ireland and Paris,
France. The aims of the company consist in both product development and
services. Our main activity focuses on wireless services and smart card-based
systems including Java CardTM applications, terminal applications and
network services. These systems are designed for telecommunication, banking
and e-commerce sectors.
About Digital Bridges
Founded in 1998, Digital Bridges is a world leader in the creation and
distribution of mobile entertainment solutions. An industry pioneer, Digital
Bridges brings the best in mobile entertainment to more than 45 operators,
portals and other mobile content distributors worldwide representing 278
million subscribers. The company possesses a unique combination of mobile
technology, development and publishing expertise, and works with many
of the world's leading media and entertainment brands including Star Trek,
Big Brother, Scooby-Doo, Thunderbirds, Cartoon Network, Men in Black,
The Weakest Link, Space Invaders, EA SPORTS FIFA 2003 and EA SPORTS Tiger
Woods*. UNITYTM, the company's best-in-class technology platform, supports
all current and future mobile standards, protocols, technologies and operating
systems. Digital Bridges' investors include Apax Partners, Telesystem-Argo
Global Capital and Openwave Systems. Digital Bridges has its commercial
headquarters in London, with technology & publishing divisions in
Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as sales offices in New York, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Paris, Munich, and Stockholm.
For more information, please call +44 (0)20 7901 1760 or visit us at
www.digitalbridges.com
About Gemplus
GEMPLUS: the world's leading provider of smart card solutions.
Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalized
solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These
include mobile internet access, inter-operable banking facilities, e-commerce
and a wealth of other applications.
Gemplus is the only completely dedicated, truly global player in the Smart
Card industry, with the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and
an outstanding track record of technological innovation.
In 2001, Gemplus was the worldwide smart card leader in both revenue
and total smart card shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost and Sullivan)
. Gemplus was also awarded Frost and Sullivan's 2002 Market Value Award
for its exceptional performance.
Gemplus trades its shares on Euronext Paris S.A. First Market and on
the Nasdaq Stock Market(tm) as GEMP in the form of ADSs. Its revenue in
2001 was 1 billion Euros.
Gemplus: Beyond Smart
www.gemplus.com
For further information please contact:
Gemplus
Jane Strachey
Tel: +33 (0)4 42 36 46 61
Email:jane.strachey@gemplus.com
Edelman PR Agency
Vanessa Wong
Account Director
Tel +44 (020) 7344 1349
Vanessa.wong@edelman.com
©2002 Gemplus All rights reserved. Gemplus
and the Gemplus logo are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A.
and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service
marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property
of their respective owners. Java and Java Card are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
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