PlanetAll Partners With Puma Technology to Synchronize Web-Based Contact Management Service With Leading Mobile Devices and Desktop Applications
SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 6, 1998 — PlanetAll(R), (www.planetall.com), the web's only contact management service that continuously and automatically updates users' information, announced today a partnership with Puma Technology(TM), Inc. (NASDAQ:PUMA), the leader in Mobile Data Exchange(TM) software. This alliance will enable the tens of millions of users of PIMs (personal information management software), PDAs (personal digital assistants), laptops, electronic organizers, smart phones and pagers to synchronize their contact information and calendars with PlanetAll. Puma is developing Intellisync(R) for PlanetAll, an extension to the market-leading Intellisync family of synchronization products, to bring information mobility to the Internet world. With today's announcement, PlanetAll is looking for Puma Technology to provide synchronization for popular applications and hardware devices with PlanetAll's free, self-updating service via the Internet.
Puma's Intellisync is the defacto standard in the industry, offering a rich feature set with the broadest application and device support in the marketplace. Not only is Intellisync technology pervasive in a number of leading applications and devices, but with its work with AT&T, Visto, and Premiere Technologies, Puma also brings proven Internet synchronization expertise to this new relationship. With many people today regularly changing jobs and moving, buying cell phones and getting new area codes, the merging of PlanetAll's automatic updating capabilities with PIMs and PDAs via Puma's synchronization technology enables anytime, anywhere access to current and accurate contact information. Intellisync for PlanetAll will be available in the fourth quarter of 1998 as a free download from wherever the PlanetAll contact management services are offered.
"Until now our services have been delivered primarily over the Web," said Jim Savage, CEO of PlanetAll. "Our relationship with Puma enhances the value of PlanetAll by extending the magic we create on the Web into the world of hand-held and desktop devices. We turned to Puma because synchronization is their business. As the provider of Intellisync, the defacto standard in synchronization technology, Puma Technology can offer our users the easiest, most sophisticated synchronization solutions. This deal underscores the evolution of PlanetAll from a useful and interesting Web-based service, to an integral part of the way people manage their contact information, calendars and schedules on a daily basis."
"By partnering with a market leader like PlanetAll, we are extending our synchronization platform to include cyberspace, fundamentally redefining what it means to stay in sync in the mobile computing marketplace," said Puma President and CEO Brad Rowe. "The notion of mobility now includes personalized content, stored over and accessible from the Internet. Thereby PlanetAll, a company which uniquely leverages the web to store current and always accessible personal information, is the perfect partner for Puma to address the evolving definition of mobility. Increasingly, making data mobile means not just from information on your PC or network, but from web-based information 'in the sky'. This is a turning point in the mobile computing marketplace for both end-users and the Internet information portals that serve them."
PlanetAll currently offers basic synchronization support for Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Express and PalmPilot users. PlanetAll has turned to Puma to provide its broader, more sophisticated Intellisync solution to its customers in the future. In addition to offering robust support for software and mobile devices including 3Com's PalmPilot and Microsoft Outlook 97/98, Puma's Intellisync for PlanetAll will also support Symantec ACT! 3.0/4.0, Lotus Organizer 2.1/97, Microsoft Schedule + 7.0/7.0a/7.5., and a broad range of other popular devices and applications in the future. In addition to working with PlanetAll to deliver Intellisync for PlanetAll, Puma Technology has also made an investment in the company, underscoring their common vision of expanding synchronization capabilities into the Internet space. With this commitment, Puma joins other PlanetAll investors including CMG@Ventures, Lycos, Arts Alliance Ltd., and a cast of prominent individual investors.
Intellisync — the Standard in Advanced Synchronization Solutions
Puma views synchronization as one of the most critical driving factors propelling the growth of the mobile computing market, which encompasses organizers such as the Palm Computing platform devices, Windows CE devices, the REX PC Companion, PC notebooks, smart phones, and other such devices. Puma provides the broadest support for handheld devices and applications in the market enabling users to easily and seamlessly update contact, calendar, memo and to-do list data in an intelligent fashion between a handheld device and PC-based applications. Without this ability, handheld devices are "islands" of information unable to effectively interact with other PIM software applications in the PC world.
By further expanding synchronization capabilities to the Internet world, Puma is revolutionizing the way mobile people can access and organize critical information. Puma's patented Data Synchronization Extensions Technology (DSX Technology(tm)), found in every Intellisync offering, provides advanced synchronization capabilities enabling the most seamless user experience and helping to optimize the device itself.
Pricing and Availability
Intellisync for PlanetAll will be available in the fourth quarter of 1998 as a free download from wherever the PlanetAll contact management services are offered, and from the Puma Technology web site at www.pumatech.com.
About Puma Technology
Puma Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PUMA) is the leading provider of Mobile Data Exchange software, high-performance wireless infrared connectivity solutions that allow users to easily exchange or access information and applications from a remote computer over both wireless and wired media and content aware data synchronization software for PCs and hand-held devices. Puma's product offerings make it simple and inexpensive for users to transfer information and documents between computing devices and between computing devices and peripherals. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and maintains a Web site at www.pumatech.com.
About PlanetAll
PlanetAll (www.planetall.com) provides next-generation, Web-based contact management services to people who want to optimize the value of their ever-changing network of professional and personal contacts. Over 1.5 million people currently use PlanetAll's free and private service to securely manage their own contacts and access a vast network of potential contacts. Users of PlanetAll's service benefit from address books that become self-populating, self-updating and universally accessible. The service also includes periodic emails that summarize any address changes or other news about their contacts, and networking tools to expand their circle of contacts. PlanetAll's service automatically updates most Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Personal Information Managers (PIMs), laptops, electronic organizers, smart phones and pagers with fresh contact information. PlanetAll's service is available to everyone through some of the Web's largest sites including Lycos and GeoCities.
Note to Editors: Puma Technology, the Puma Technology logo, Intellisync, the Intellisync logo, DSX Technology, the DSX Technology logo, Mobile Data Exchange, and the Mobile Data Exchange logo, are trademarks of Puma Technology, Inc. that may be registered in some jurisdictions. PlanetAll(R) is a registered trademark of PlanetAll. All other marks belong to their respective owners.
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