Philips Press Release

PHILIPS LICENCES LETTERWISE TEXT ENTRY FROM EATONI ERGONOMICS FOR ITS CORDLESS PRODUCTS


New York/Le Mans, April 4 2002 - Philips and Eatoni Ergonomics have entered into an agreement whereby Philips acquires rights to install Eatoni's LetterWise text entry software in its SMS enabled cordless phones, Howard Gutowitz, Eatoni CEO announced today.

"This agreement strongly contributes to the consolidation of SMS traffic over European fixed telephony networks as Philips cordless phones incorporate easy text entry and messaging capability as a standard feature," Gutowitz said. SMS skyrocketed from four billion per month in May of 2000, to an estimated current rate of about 30 billion today worldwide, and is projected to reach 100 billion per month by 2004/5.

"LetterWise makes messaging on a DECT platform a lot more interesting, appealing and comfortable," said Alberto Zanettin, DECT Product Management Director within Philips. "As a major supplier of cordless phones, we are the first company on the market to offer predictive text solution for SMS in our next DECT range. We have chosen LetterWise for our DECT products as we discovered it requires astonishingly little memory and it is easier to use than multi-tap. We believe this application offers our consumers the best text input solution for DECT products."

"Philips is a top name in consumer electronics, including DECT products where it holds a number two global position," said Gutowitz. "Their endorsement of our approach to predictive text entry provides Eatoni with significant momentum as the company moves forward in the texting marketplace". This agreement further supports Eatoni's role as the sole predictive text solution used on the rapidly exploding European cordless DECT phone market, Gutowitz observed, opening the door for LetterWise to be used on a host of other handheld devices.

"By partnering with Philips we believe we can transform and expand the texting market worldwide," Gutowitz said. "Text messaging is a simple form of communication which for many reasons has proven extremely suitable to today's life style. It is no longer circumscribed to mobile telephony as users expect easy access to it from their PDAs, remote controls and other mobile devices. Philips is at the front of the wave and we trust their consumers will embrace LetterWise and look for it in other devices."


For further information, please contact:

 Eatoni Ergonomics
 phone: 212 337 3322
 


 Philips Consumer Electronics
 Corporate Communications
 Nanda Huizing, Senior Communications Manager
 Tel: +31 40 2780074
 nanda.huizing@philips.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 please visit our web site at www.eatoni.com.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 32.3 billion in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 189,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com

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