Press Releases

ACCESS to Provide Core Technology for Palm OS 5 Browser

Multi-Year Agreement Includes Plans for Future Development

Tokyo, Japan / Fremont, CA, USA – June 26, 2002 – ACCESS, a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronics devices, will provide core browser technology for the Palm OS^® 5 browser announced today. The Palm OS 5 browser is based on technology from ACCESS’ NetFront^™ v3.0 browser and provides secure transactions via SSL. The multi-year agreement was signed between ACCESS Systems America, Inc., a subsidiary of ACCESS Co. Ltd., and PalmSource Inc., the Palm OS subsidiary of Palm, Inc. In addition, ACCESS Systems America and PalmSource will work together to further integrate advanced web browsing features into the Palm OS platform.

NetFront v3.0 is a full-featured and efficient browser with sophisticated modularity. It can be embedded in a scalable manner in handhelds, cell phones and other resource-restricted Internet devices. NetFront v3.0’s extensive feature set supports and enhances the key areas of security, multimedia, wireless connectivity and enterprise applications found in Palm OS 5. By taking advantage of the technology found in NetFrontv3.0, Palm OS 5 offers a rich, powerful mobile Internet end-use experience, further establishing Palm OS 5 as the platform of choice for delivering mobile Internet solutions to both the enterprise and consumer markets.

NetFront is the most widely used embedded browser in the world, with over 63 million licenses sold. NetFront browsers currently power over 177 different consumer electronics Internet devices from over 40 major manufacturers. In alliance with PalmSource, ACCESS Systems America will leverage this expertise in the embedded browser market to ensure the smooth integration of NetFront browser technology with future releases of Palm OS.

“ACCESS is a clear leader in the mobile Internet market as well as an active participant in standards bodies where they have consistently promoted open, standards-based Internet technologies,” said Steve Sakoman, Chief Product Officer, PalmSource, Inc. “Their support for standards combined with the leading technology found in NetFront v3.0, made ACCESS the best company to work with as we enrich the browsing capabilities of Palm OS.”

“As a pioneer and leader in the handheld market, PalmSource and the Palm OS platform are well-positioned to usher in a new age of mobile devices that will give consumers unprecedented functionality,” said Toru Arakawa, President and CEO, ACCESS Co., Ltd. “We are pleased to provide our market-proven browser to Palm OS 5 devices and to work with PalmSource for future releases of Palm OS.”

About NetFront v3.0
NetFront v3.0 is a modular, scalable browser designed to meet the unique requirements of resource-constrained consumer information appliances, delivering high performance and an extensive feature set with low memory and power requirements. NetFront v3.0’s modular architecture allows for custom configurations for specific target hardware. This unique scalability allows NetFront to cover a broad range of appliance profiles from mobile phones to digital televisions.

In addition to the latest W3C specifications HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, NetFront v3.0 supports enhanced features such as Dynamic HTML, ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM (Document Object Model), CSS, and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). JV-Lite^™2, a J2ME compliant Java runtime environment, and an MMS client are also available as optional modules.

About Palm OS 5
The recently introduced Palm OS 5 brings the flexibility, innovation and ease of use of the Palm OS platform to powerful ARM-compliant processors. With Palm OS 5, customers can deploy a broad range of Palm Powered‘ devices while supporting a single operating system and set of applications. Palm OS 5 features an enhanced user interface that enables increased personalization, security, multimedia and wireless networking, as well as compatibility with existing Palm OS software programs. Information about PalmSource, Inc., the Palm OS subsidiary of Palm, Inc., is available at http://www.palmsource.com.

About ACCESS Co, Ltd.
ACCESS Systems America, Inc., is the U.S subsidiary of ACCESS Co. Ltd.of Tokyo, Japan (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronics devices. The company’s NetFront^® suite of browser software powers over 177 different commercial products worldwide including mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, PDAs and car navigation systems. ACCESS’ Compact NetFront^® micro browser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. To date, more than 63 million ACCESS software licenses have shipped from more than 40 major Internet device manufacturers. ACCESS Systems America is based in Fremont, CA. More information is available at www.access-us-inc.com.

ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront, Compact NetFront are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan. NetFront is a registered trademark of NetFront Communications, Inc. in the United States and is used under license. i-mode is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm Powered is a trademark of Palm, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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