Press Releases

ACCESS, Sharp to Cooperate on Advancing PDA Technologies

Wireless Internet Access on Sharp PDA with NetFront^™Browser to be Demonstrated at CeBIT 2002

Tokyo, Japan / Fremont, CA, USA / Oberhausen, Germany – March 14, 2002 – ACCESS Co., Ltd., a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronic devices, today announced that it has concluded a contract for technological cooperation with Sharp Corp. to further advance PDA technologies by incorporating ACCESS’ NetFront^™ embedded browser technology into Sharp’s line of wireless PDAs.

ACCESS will initially license its NetFront Internet appliance browser to Sharp for use in its wireless PDA Phone WP500 which will be provided to telecom carriers. This software solution will be demonstrated at ACCESS’ booth (Hall 12, Stand B69) during CeBIT 2002, an international trade fair for business and information technologies, on March 13-20 inHannover, Germany.

As wireless Internet access on PDAs becomes more prevalent, the need for high-quality, efficient browser software becomes ever more crucial. In order to meet this growing demand, ACCESS will focus on software technologies for the PDA market in the future.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Sharp, a leading global company in the mobile PDA space. Over the next few years, consumers will be able to access the Internet through a wide variety of Internet appliances. This evolution will bring the Internet closer to our daily lives. By providing our browser, we are looking forward to helping build this new world of Internet appliances along with Sharp,” said Toru Arakawa, CEO of ACCESS Co., Ltd..

ACCESS and Sharp will continue working together to further advance PDA technologies and to develop the market for PDAs with embedded Internet software.

“NetFront v3.0 Mobile Browser is another clear demonstration of how Symbian enables capable next-generation applications to be built on top of the open, modular operating system for mobile phones” said Timo Bruns, Strategic Product Manager, Symbian.

About NetFront
NetFront is one of the world’s most popular embedded Internet browsers and was designed from the ground up for IP-based consumer electronics devices. Since its introduction in 1995, more than 53 million commercial-license copies of NetFront and its micro version, Compact NetFront have been shipped for use in over 150 different consumer information appliances. Among these appliances are Internet TVs, PDAs, set top boxes, car navigation systems (telematics), smart phones, web/screen phones, vertical intranet terminals, video game consoles, word processing machines and Internet kiosks. NetFront provides the key advantages of high portability, flexible UI customization, and high performance within limited CPU/memory resources.

About ACCESS Co, Ltd.
ACCESS Co. Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with ACCESS Systems America, its US subsidiary, in Fremont, California, and with ACCESS Systems Europe, its German subsidiary, in Oberhausen, Germany. ACCESS is a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronic devices. ACCESS’ embedded NetFront^™ and Compact NetFront^™ browsers power over 150 different commercial products worldwide including mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, game consoles, PDAs, car navigation systems, web phones, kiosk terminals and intranet terminals. ACCESS’ Compact NetFront microbrowser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. To date, more than 53 million ACCESS software licenses have shipped from more than 40 major Internet device manufacturers. ACCESS was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on February 26, 2001. More information is available at www.access.co.jp/english/

Thisb press release is not an offer of any securities of ACCESS Co., Ltd. for sale in the United States. Such securities have not been registered in the United States under the Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent such registration or an exemption there from.

ACCESS, NetFront and Compact NetFront are registered trademarks or trademarks owned by ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan and selected countries worldwide. NetFront is a registered trademark of NetFront Communications, Inc. in the United States and is used under a license. i-mode is a trademark or registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries. Sharp is a registered trademark of Sharp Corp.. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.