France Telecom & ACCESS Develop Rich Media Solutions
ACCESS announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France Telecom for the joint development of a complete wireless Internet solution based on ACCESS’ products and services. This R&D partnership will enable both companies to collaboratively design and deploy innovative, rich media mobile Internet technologies for France Telecom mobile customers. The R&D department of France Télécom and ACCESS are committed to leveraging resources and sharing expertise to develop products based on the NetFront browser framework. The technologies that will be supported within the browser framework include SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), streaming video, SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), and other rich media and animation technologies.
“France Telecom has been strongly involved for many years in the study of Rich Media technologies and the design of innovative services for our customers,” said Jean-Marc Guillet, Rich Media project manager at France Télécom. “Teaming up with ACCESS through this common R&D process gives us the opportunity to leverage their global expertise to more quickly develop innovative and content-rich media capabilities that could directly benefit our mobile customers.”
Widely recognized as one of the most advanced Internet browser technologies in the mobile market, ACCESS’ NetFront browser provides end users with a comprehensive feature set that supports the latest Internet standards including OMA Browsing 2.2, WML, HTML 4.01, and cHTML as well as unique technologies that make mobile Internet browsing highly responsive and intuitive. Key among these technologies are Smart-Fit Rendering(tm), a technology that intelligently renders full Web pages to fit the screen width of mobile devices, eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling and Rapid-Render(tm), a progressive rendering technology that significantly accelerates the presentation of Web page data. NetFront browser also provides mobile professionals with unique business productivity features, like integrated support for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files via Adobe® Reader(tm) LE software, a first for mobile browsers.
“This partnership is a key component in our goal for NetFront to deliver a seamless, content-rich Internet experience in tandem with sophisticated Web browsing technologies to mobile users worldwide,” said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of ACCESS. “Working hand-in-hand with the research and development units from a leading wireless operator, such as France Telecom, is an essential step in achieving this goal.”
About France Telecom
France Telecom is one of the world’s leading telecommunications carriers, with 121.5 million customers on the five continents (220 countries and territories) and consolidated operating revenues of 46.1 billion euros for 2003 (23.2 billion euros for 1st semester 2004). Through its major international brands, including Orange, Wanadoo, Equant and GlobeCast, France Telecom provides businesses, consumers and other carriers with a complete portfolio of solutions that spans local, long-distance and international telephony, wireless, Internet, multimedia, data, broadcast and cable TV services.
France Telecom is the second-largest wireless operator and Internet access provider in Europe, and a world leader in telecommunications solutions for multinational corporations. France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges.
France Telecom puts technological innovation at the heart of its concerns. With 4200 researchers and 7300 patents, its R&D division is the engine of its innovation capability, in France and abroad. Its role is to anticipate technological revolutions and new uses, providing innovation to offer customers the best from telecommunications, simultaneously imagining today the technologies which will be part of their daily life tomorrow. Its R&D’s results have put the Group in the leading position in Europe in terms of telecommunications research and development. Established on 16 sites, including 8 abroad (London, San Francisco, Boston, Tokyo, Varsow, Beijing, Seoul, New Delhi), the researchers of France Telecom are involved in the design and the development of approximately 70% of the products of the group. http://www.rd.francetelecom.fr
About NetFront Browser
NetFront browser recently surpassed over 164.9 million deployments globally that include 515 unique devices ranging from mobile phones and PDAs to digital televisions, gaming consoles, and automobile telematics systems from 90 major Internet device manufacturers. NetFront supports a wider range of operating systems than any competing browser including solutions for Palm® OS, Symbian OS, Linux OS, Microsoft® Windows® Mobile/PocketPC and mobile handset environments like BREW®. NetFront browser technology is used by the world’s leading mobile operators, software providers and electronics manufacturers including Adobe, Alpine, Amoi, AT&T Wireless, Casio, Epson, Hitachi, Hutchinson 3G Group, IBM, KDDI, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Mitsubishi, palmOne, PalmSource, Samsung, SANYO, Sharp, Sony, Telcel Venezuela, TCL, Toshiba, UTStarcom and more.
About ACCESS
ACCESS is a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies to the beyond-PC market. Its NetFront browser, widely recognized as one of the most advanced Internet browsers in the world, is a cornerstone to the company’s vision of making the ubiquitous Internet a reality. NetFront technologies are delivering full Internet browsing and related services to next-generation mobile devices and consumer electronics ranging from digital TVs to automobile telematics. For more information: www.access.co.jp or www.access-us-inc.com.
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ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront and Compact NetFront are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Marc Sparrow
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