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Hitachi Licenses T9 Text Input for New Mobile Phone Models
DULLES, Va., Feb 28, 2002 - Tegic Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online,
Inc. today announced that Hitachi, Ltd. has licensed T9(R) Text Input software for the Spanish and English languages. Hitachi
will integrate T9 Text Input into its new mobile phone models slated for availability in the United States.
T9 Text Input software, also commonly referred to as "predictive text input," enables the use of wireless communication
services such as SMS (short messaging service), mobile instant messaging and e-mail by making it quick and easy for consumers
to enter text and characters into their wireless phone using just one key press per letter.
"Hitachi wants to make wireless data services as easy to use as talking on your wireless phone," said Shinichi Hagiya, General
Manager of Mobile System Operation, Digital Media Group for Hitachi, Ltd. "By incorporating T9 Text Input software into our
wireless phones, Hitachi phone users will enjoy quick and easy typing."
"We are excited that Hitachi has selected T9 Text Input as the text entry system for their next generation wireless handsets,"
said Bill Schwebel, Vice President and General Manager of Licensed Products for America Online. "Users of Hitachi handsets
will now benefit from Tegic's industry-leading solution for quick and easy text entry on wireless phones."
About T9 Text Input
By incorporating T9 Text Input into mobile communications products, companies are solving the fundamental problem of how to
quickly and easily type and send messages. Although each key on a telephone keypad can be interpreted in multiple ways-a
single press on the "5" key could be "J," "K," or "L"-T9 Text Input uses an internal database to automatically scan possible
variations to determine the correct word. For example, entering the word "call" into a mobile phone will take just four key
presses with T9 Text Input rather than ten key presses required by conventional "multi-tap" text entry.
T9 Text Input is available in 31 languages, including Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean (Hangul), Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese,
Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. T9 Text Input
supports Simplified and Traditional stroke-based Chinese, as well as phonetic Pinyin and BoPoMoFo text input. Language
support is continually expanding.
There are nearly 180 mobile phone models available throughout the world today that include T9 Text Input and the technology
has been licensed to major consumer electronics and communications equipment manufacturers representing more than 90
percent of annual mobile phone production worldwide.
About Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000
(ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion(1)). The company manufactures and markets a
wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For
more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
((1) At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
About Tegic Communications
Tegic Communications, a leading developer of software for wireless phones, was founded in 1995 to develop and market
communication technologies for the telecommunications and computing industries and was acquired by America Online, Inc. in
December 1999. Tegic Communications is headquartered in Seattle and has offices in the UK, Japan and China. Tegic's
flagship product, T9 Text Input, is the leading alphabet-based and Chinese and Japanese character-based text input software.
For more information about T9 Text Input, please visit the company's Web site at www.t9.com.
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE:AOL). Based in Dulles, Virginia,
America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
Tegic is a trademark and T9 is a registered trademark of Tegic Communications. All other trademarks or registered trademarks
belong to their respective holders.
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