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PlayPhone Brings Mobile Phone Fun to a Store Near You
New Company Becomes Leader in Retail Distribution of Wireless Entertainment in North America
SAN JOSE, Calif.--April 29, 2003--PlayPhone Inc., a new publisher dedicated to bringing the best wireless entertainment content to retailers and operators across North America, has officially launched today.
Having a strategic alliance with Sammy Corporation, a multimedia entertainment group with $1.3 billion in revenue, and Atrativa Inc., the U.S.-based wireless entertainment distributor, PlayPhone has already established itself as one of the largest retail distributors of entertainment content for cellular phones in North America, encompassing mobile games, ringtones, color graphics and more.
Although a new company, PlayPhone has developed a wide retail distribution network. The company's ringtone packs are already available in more than 4,000 retail stores across the nation, including Rite Aid and Fred Meyers. PlayPhone expects to have at least fifteen branded packs in more than 10,000 stores by the end of the third quarter of 2003. The company will announce a number of specific retail partnerships in the coming weeks.
The company is also distributing its ringtone and game packs through some of the largest prepaid distributors in North America, covering more than 100,000 store fronts.
PlayPhone-branded retail packs currently include monophonic and polyphonic ringtones, as well as state-of-the-art color screensavers and backgrounds. Retail packs featuring mobile Java games will follow in the second quarter of this year. The packs are universally accessible and will work with most phones from all of the major North American carriers. This allows PlayPhone to bring the best content and titles from around the world to the widest possible number of consumers across North America.
"Cell phones offer the opportunity to truly revolutionize the entertainment industry," said Ron Czerny, CEO of PlayPhone. "The penetration of phones into the consumer market is staggering, but to ensure that the market reaches its full potential, it is crucial that the consumers can find content quickly and easily through channels they understand. This is why PlayPhone has created a dedicated line of products that will be available through retail stores and outlets. Buying an entertainment retail pack gives consumers a tangible product to purchase. This is a new concept in the mobile content sector and creates a huge number of new opportunities for the market as a whole."
"The demand for wireless content -- especially entertainment content -- is proving to be enormously popular and is expanding rapidly across North America," Mr. Czerny added. "PlayPhone is well positioned to fully serve this new and important market and utilize the traditional retail sector to bring this content into reach of as many consumers as possible."
Mobile gaming is seen as one of the more valuable sectors of the rapidly growing mobile content industry. The latest research figures indicate that mobile gaming will be generating revenue in the region of $7 billion dollars within the next five years, with the bulk of this money coming from downloadable Java and BREW games.(a)
PlayPhone will show its retail packs and demonstrate much of its new content at the stand 2200 of the E3 expo, taking place in Los Angeles on May 14-16th. Media wishing to meet PlayPhone executives during the show should contact the company -- media@play-phone.com.
The company will announce several game publishing and retail partnerships over the coming weeks.
About PlayPhone
Founded in 2003, PlayPhone Inc., A California-based company, publishes, markets and distributes wireless entertainment products and content to consumers in North America. PlayPhone has a strategic alliance with Sammy Corporation, the largest pachinko maker in the world and a leading Japanese video game producer.
PlayPhone's current lineup of wireless products include Musical Ringtone Packs and JAVA Game Packs from renowned brandholders the world over. For more information, please visit www.play-phone.com.
About Sammy
Sammy was established in 1975 to develop, manufacture, and market game machines, including video arcade game machines, arranged-ball machines, etc. After Sammy had entered the market for the pachislot and pachinko business, Sammy grew further. With the corporate philosophy, "Enterprising Spirits," we have always done our best to meet new challenges, pursuing product and business development with creativity and vision, in the field of entertainment. For more information please visit www.sammy.co.jp or www.sammyusa.com.
About Atrativa
Atrativa Inc. (www.atrativa.com) is the largest online games provider in Latin America, combining the best games with latest technology. Atrativa offers innovative services to its users, including prizing systems, downloadable game zones, multiplayer gaming and the "Hall of Fame", which ranks individual users according to their performance. Atrativa's partners include: Universo Online (UOL), a major ISP in Latin America; Telefonica, one of the leading wireless carriers in Latin America.
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