BURLINGTON, N.J. and PARIS, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Franklin Electronic
Publishers, Inc. (Amex: FEP) and MobiPocket.com S.A. of Paris, France, a
Company partially financed by Viventures Partners, created by Vivendi
Universal, the Fund's largest investor, today announced an agreement by which
the companies will bring electronic books, web-based information services, and
office applications to Franklin's award-winning eBookMan(R) multimedia
platform. A beta version of the MobiPocket Reader, which allows eBookMan
users to read electronic books on the go, is now available for download from
http://www.franklin.com. With MobiPocket Reader for eBookMan, readers have immediate
access to more than fifteen hundred electronic books in English, French,
German and Spanish from publishers such as Vivendi Universal Publishing (that
has recently acquired the US-based publisher Houghton Mifflin) and Taylor and
Francis. MobiPocket Web Companion, which allows for access to and downloading
of updated information from select websites, will be made available under the
agreement for the eBookMan platform as will MobiPocket Office Companion, which
provides a suite of business related applications, such as a reader for Power
Point presentations and Word documents.
Barry J. Lipsky, president and chief executive officer of Franklin said
"It's been clear from the beginning that the availability of content is key to
widespread adoption of eBooks. Franklin's vision has long been to provide
content to all popular handhelds. Our alliance with MobiPocket provides the
publishing community the most compelling story yet: an OEB compliant reader
format that provides a single file type that allows us to support not only
our own eBookman platform but also Palm OS, Pocket PC, and Epoch 32 devices as
well. This will allow us to bring our users a much broader selection of
content and to give publishers a direct path to bringing their valuable
content to more readers on the web."
M. Thierry Brethes, President and Directeur General of MobiPocket said,
"Through our alliance with Franklin, MobiPocket has demonstrated the success
of its software package designated to be platform agnostic. MobiPocket is
very happy to support Franklin in its effort to promote electronic content on
its mobile devices, both in terms of reading software and content. This
alliance provides MobiPocket with its first major partnership in the United
States that will help the diffusion of our products worldwide."
About eBookMan
eBookMan(R) is a multimedia content player offering mass-market audiences
a robust feature set and an optimal display screen at an affordable price.
All three eBookMan(R) models have a large 240 x 200 pixel LCD that displays
87 percent more information than a typical handheld. Each model gives
consumers a vehicle to download thousands of electronic books, audio books and
musical works, to synchronize between users' personal information manager
programs and Microsoft(R) Outlook(R), to record and play voice memos and to
write notes easily with natural handwriting recognition. Franklin's open but
secure architecture also enables publishers and developers to offer more
titles in a protected environment.
The entry model, EBM-900, with a suggested retail price of $129.95,
includes a microphone, speaker, headphone jack, multimedia memory card for
memory expansion, a USB port and 8MB of built-in memory. The EBM-901, with a
suggested retail price of $179.95, adds a backlit, polarized display and
additional free books. The flagship model, the EBM-911, suggested to retail
for $229.95, offers 16MB of memory and even more free content.
EBookMan won the eBook Technology Award from the International eBook Award
Foundation at the Frankford Book Fair in October 2000.
Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. (Amex: FEP), the worldwide market
leader in handheld electronic books, is the designer and distributor of the
award winning multimedia eBookMan(R) platform. The Company is the exclusive
producer and distributor of the ROLODEX(R) Electronics brand of personal
information management products. Franklin has sold more than 25,000,000
electronic books and currently publishes more than 200 titles, including
dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries; encyclopedias; Bibles; entertainment
titles; education and tutorial publications; and medical reference works.
Franklin products, available in sixteen languages, are sold in 45,000 retail
outlets worldwide, through catalogs and on line at franklin.com. The Company
has sales and distribution subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, the Benelux countries, Canada, Australia and Mexico, and production
management offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
ROLODEX(R) is a registered trademark of Berol Corporation, a subsidiary of
Newell Rubbermaid, Inc.
About MobiPocket
MobiPocket is the only software and technology company which enables the
reading and secured distribution of electronic text, across all existing OS
platforms. MobiPocket is also engaged in the online distribution of E-books
and of E-content software through its own website. The Company, founded in
March 2000, is headquartered in Paris, France, and is partially financed by
Viventures. Since its ignition, the Company has significantly leveraged
content synergies with VU, establishing a core partnership with Vivendi
Universal Publishing. In addition, the MobiPocket software package, developed
internally, can be customized to meet clients' needs in a timely manner.
Special features may include wireless Internet access to content, sub-pixel
rendering to enhance the reading experience, or supporting multimedia
features.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters
discussed throughout this release, including, but not limited to, those that
are stated as Franklin's belief or expectation or preceded by the word
"should" are forward looking statements that involve risks to and
uncertainties in Franklin's business, including, among other things, the
timely availability and acceptance of new electronic books and organizers,
changes in technology, the impact of competitive electronic products, the
management of inventories, Franklin's dependence on third party component
suppliers and manufacturers, including those that provide Franklin-specific
parts, and other risks and uncertainties that may be detailed from time to
time in Franklin's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.franklin.com
CONTACT:
Gregory J. Winsky, Executive Vice President
of Franklin Electronic Publishers, 609-386-2500, or Thierry
Brethes, Chief Executive Officer of MobiPocket SA, 331-4224-1400
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