 Gemplus
reports results of its 2004 U.S. SIM Card Awareness Survey
Customer service applications and the ability to retain
user settings and phone numbers when switching phones rank as the most appealing
wireless features.
Luxembourg, Dallas, TEXAS, November 8, 2004 - Gemplus International
S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading
provider of smart card solutions, today announces the results of its 2004 U.S.
SIM Card Awareness Survey. The survey, conducted during September and October
2004 by The Olinger Group, gauges U.S. wireless user awareness of SIM cards and
identifies trends in wireless services adoption.
"We asked the Olinger Group to survey 400 wireless users to better
understand their expectations regarding phones and SIM cards. According to our
survey, 4 in 10 wireless users have heard of SIM cards," said Jean-Louis
Carrara, Vice President of marketing and technical consulting for Gemplus's
telecommunications business unit in North America. "This is consistent with
the growing number of wireless smart cards (SIM cards) in the U.S. deployed by
Cingular, Nextel, AT&T Wireless, and T-Mobile U.S."
Asked to rate various wireless features, wireless users ranked the ability to
automatically notify the carrier of service problems the highest (7.4/10),
followed by the ability to change phones and keep ring tones/settings (6.4/10),
self-manage wireless set-up (6.0/10), and easily transfer speed dials from phone
to phone (5.8/10).
"Customer service applications remain the most appealing features to the
wireless users we surveyed," continued Mr. Carrara. "Wireless users
continue to highly value the direct relationship with their service provider.
They want wireless devices to monitor their personal experiences and service
providers to improve them accordingly. Service providers can rely on a SIM
network monitoring applet present across all devices."
The SIM card plays the dual role of representing the service operator in the
hands of the subscriber, as well as identifying the subscriber onto the wireless
network. This characteristic allows the subscriber to move the SIM from phone to
phone, which speeds the introduction of new phones and new services.
"As subscribers increasingly personalize their phones, they want to
carry their personalities with them when they switch phones, including ring
tones, settings, and speed dials. In fact, 84% of those who use speed dials said
they would be interested in using the SIM to safely transfer this information
from phone to phone. The phonebook remains highly valued and 80% said they would
purchase a service to keep their phonebook entries safe, as compared to 50% in
2003."
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP)
is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and
total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest (2004), Frost & Sullivan,
Datamonitor.) It has sold over 4 billion smart cards.
With security at its core, and 2400 patents produced by its innovative
R&D team, Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions
in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony,
Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access
control.
Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
For more information
Kerry Butler
Gemplus
Tel: 215 390 2840
kerry.butler@gemplus.com
Larry Greenberg
Edelman
Tel: 212 704 8277
lawrence.greenberg@gemplus.com
©2004 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.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute
forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our
future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties,
and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future
results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ
materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking
statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in
wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new
technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected
intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our
expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights;
our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major
businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and
services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share
price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the
accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this
release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements
after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the
occurrence of anticipated results.
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