Benq Press Release

EATONI ERGONOMICS AND BENQ SIGN LICENSING AGREEMENT FOR LETTERWISE TEXT ENTRY SOFTWARE


Benq, formerly Acer CM, to bring LetterWise to cell phones in March, 2002


NEW YORK/TAIWAN, Jan. 10 - - Eatoni Ergonomics, a leading creator of next-generation text entry software for handheld devices, has licensed its LetterWise text-entry software to Benq, formerly known as Acer CM, Howard Gutowitz, Eatoni Founder/CEO announced today. LetterWise, a predictive text-solution that makes it easy to type text on a cell phone keypad, will begin to appear in Benq-manufactured phones in March of this year, according to company officials. Under the terms of the agreement, Benq will incorporate LetterWise text entry language databases for English, Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese into its GSM and CDMA phones, and potentially into PDA and other products as well. Benq, a leading ODM and OEM for mobile handsets, plans to introduce LetterWise-equipped handsets in March of this year under its own brand name as well as a number of other well-known brands in Greater China and Europe. "We have reached this agreement with Eatoni because our studies show that LetterWise is proving to be the best text-entry software on the market," Dr. Irwin Chen, vice president of Benq's Business Unit.


"Easy for consumers to use, and easy for manufacturers to install, LetterWise is a very mature product that requires a tiny amount of memory," Dr. Chen said.


"We're thrilled by the confidence Benq has shown in us by adopting our LetterWise product." Gutowitz said. "We look forward to seeing LetterWise on the market in Benq phones."


Short Message Service (SMS) or text messaging was created as a means to send text-based messages to mobile devices. Since its inception in 1992, the market has rapidly expanded. In fact, traffic has dramatically increased from 4 billion messages per month in early 2000 to more than 20 billion messages per month today - a growth rate of nearly 10 percent per month since early 2000.


About LetterWise Text-Entry Software

LetterWise is an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn predictive text entry solution for handheld devices. It is designed for real-world uses of text entry on handhelds, such as SMS messaging, phone address book applications, and wireless web applications. LetterWise allows quick entry of not just common words, but also slang words, foreign words, abbreviations, proper names, addresses, and URLs. LetterWise linguistic databases utilize about 3k of memory, and are so small that manufacturers can supply 100 languages in the space competitive systems use for just 5 languages. Over 40 LetterWise languages are currently available, and additional languages are becoming available on a weekly basis. LetterWise is a member of a family of products, including JLetterWise, for text entry in Japanese, and WordWise, software which allows touch typing on a telephone keypad.


About Benq

Previously named Acer Communications & Multimedia, Benq is an industry leader in digital lifestyle devices with an expertise that encompasses the display, storage, imaging, wireless and broadband areas. Benq has manufacturing plants in Malaysia, Mexico, China and Taiwan. The company has 10,100 employees worldwide, supporting a strong global sales marketing and service network spanning Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas. Benq has research and development facilities in Taiwan (Hsinchu Lab), China (Suzhou Software Development Center) and California (Wireless Technology Center), and has close to 1200 research and development employees in China, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and San Diego. Benq has amassed over 670 global patents. For more information about Benq, please visit our website at www.benq.com.


About Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc.

Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc. is a privately held corporation headquartered in New York City, with offices in Barcelona and Moscow. Founded in 2000, Eatoni Ergonomics develops advanced predictive text-entry software for handheld devices. Its products have been integrated into a wide range of products and platforms, including remote controls for TVs, cordless DECT phones, SIM cards, PDAs, and GSM and CDMA cell phones. For more information about Eatoni Ergonomics contact us at .


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