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- ACCESS and MontaVista Enhance Partnership for Consumer Electronics Market
SUNNYVALE, Calif., and TOKYO – November 19, 2002 – MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution™, and ACCESS Co. Ltd., a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronics devices, today announced they will expand their current partnership to deliver consumer electronics solutions to their mutual customers worldwide.
MontaVista™ Linux® Professional Edition 2.1 now supports the latest version (i.e.: v 3.0) of the popular NetFront™ browser from ACCESS. NetFront is the most widely used embedded browser in the world with more than 72 million licenses. This full-featured, sophisticated browser is already used in some 177 different Internet-connected consumer electronics devices from 40 major manufacturers.
“Linux is increasingly becoming the systems software of choice for consumer electronics OEMs,” said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO, ACCESS Co., Ltd. “ACCESS and MontaVista will work closely together to provide embedded Internet software solutions for developers seeking to build next-generation products for the consumer electronics markets.”
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition provides the scalability, dependability and performance required for consumer electronics applications such as smart mobile phones, wireless PDAs, set-top boxes and automotive telematics. This feature-rich embedded Linux development environment is already being used scores of consumer electronics device companies that are developing products for the mobile, home, networking and automotive markets.
According to a recent market research report from Venture Development Corporation (VDC) consumer electronics is the fastest growing market segment for Linux, at an annual growth rate of 49.0 percent and reaching $149.6 million in shipments by 2006. VDC also estimated that consumer electronics will be the largest segment of the embedded Linux market by 2006 with 43.2 percent of total revenue of $346 million.
“A recognized global leader in embedded browsers and services, ACCESS now offers our customers a solution that can speed their time-to-market,” said Hitoshi Arima, vice president of Sales, Japan, MontaVista Software. “By integrating with NetFront, we are able to offer a proven, scalable, robust and secure mini-browser solution to the worldwide embedded developers community.”
ACCESS and MontaVista concluded their original partnership agreement in 2001 and have already assisted mutual customers developing residential network terminals and IP phones. The NetFront product line includes Compact NetFront, which is target for cellular phones and small mobile terminals, NetFront for DTV, and NetFront for Automotive. ACCESS will exhibit NetFront with MontaVista Linux at the MontaVista booth during the Embedded Technology Show in Tokyo, from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22 in Booth No.A-15.
About NetFront
NetFront v3.0 is a modular, scalable browser designed specifically for resource-constrained consumer information appliances, delivering high performance and an extensive feature set with low requirements for memory and power. NetFront’s modular architecture allows custom configurations for specific target hardware. This unique scalability lets NetFront v3.0 cover a broad range of appliance profiles from mobile phones to digital television sets. In addition to the latest W3C specifications HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, NetFront v3.0 supports enhanced features such as Dynamic HTML, ECMA Script (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.
MontaVista Linux
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1 is one of the most widely used embedded Linux operating systems and development platforms. It includes an impressive array of cross-development tools for system and application code, unparalleled processor and board support, native real-time performance in Linux, and hundreds of deployable utilities, libraries, drivers, and other run-time components. Earlier this year, MontaVista Linux Professional Edition was named “Best Embedded Linux Solution” at the New York Linux World and Expo. The product received the Electron d’Or award for “Best Embedded Tool and Development Solution for 2002” from the prestigious French publication “Electronique,” and the “Readers’ Choice Award” for “Favorite Embedded Solution 2002” from the American magazine “Linux Journal.”
Availability
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition is available from MontaVista Software and the company’s sales and distribution channels worldwide. It is offered as a product subscription, providing customers with the MontaVista Linux kernel, utilities, development tools, software updates, access to the MontaVista Zone and one year of technical support. NetFront v3.0 is available from ACCESS Co. Ltd.
About ACCESS
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™ microbrowser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. To date, more than 72 million ACCESS software licenses have shipped from more than 40 major Internet device manufacturers. ACCESS Systems America is based in Fremont, Calif. More information is available at www.access-us-inc.com.
About MontaVista Software
MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software for intelligent connected devices and their associated infrastructure, for applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing GNU/Linux-based open-source systems software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista Software’s principal products include MontaVista™ Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista™ Linux® Carrier Grade Edition. The Professional Edition comprises a Linux-based embedded source and binary distribution, cross development environments, and a versatile set of tools for the x86/IA-32, PowerPC, StrongARM, MIPS, SH, ARM, XScale, Xtensa and other microprocessor architectures. The Carrier Grade Edition is a next-generation high availability product that is the first Commercial Off-The-Shelf Linux (COTS) platform for telecommunications and carrier-grade applications. MontaVista Software also provides several complementary technology products addressing specific customer needs, such as Java development and runtime, powerful graphics capabilities and more.
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Panasonic, Sony and Yamaha Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com, email to info@mvista.com or call (408) 328-9200.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a trademark of MontaVista Software Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.
MontaVista Software
Joe Samagond
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications
MontaVista Software Inc.
Phone (408) 328-9234
E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com
Patricia Colby
PR Strategy and Business Development
Pacifico Inc. (for MontaVista Software)
Phone (408) 293-8600 ext. 340
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com
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