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- Apple Announces Licensing Strategies & Alliances for Newton
-
- Contact:
- Frank O'Mahoney
- Apple Computer, Inc.
- 408-974-5420
-
- Laurence Clavere
- Apple Europe
- (33) 1 49 01 48 82
-
- Apple Announces Licensing Strategies and Alliances For Newton
- Technology
-
- HANNOVER, Germany--March 25, 1993--Apple Computer, Inc. today made a
- number of announcements underlining its commitment to make its Newton
- technology a pervasive standard available to the computer, consumer
- and telecommunications industries. Apple aims to license key
- technologies to companies who can manufacture and market a variety of
- exciting new products--based on Newton technology--to a broad range
- of customers. Newton is a family of personal digital assistant (PDA)
- products and technologies from Apple Computer due to be launched
- later this year. Newton technologies have been designed in such a way
- that key elements and components can be licensed to third parties.
- Several companies have announced their commitment and support for
- Newton technologies. Among them are:
-
- - Sharp Corporation
- Sharp Corporation, Apple's strategic ally in the development and
- manufacture of Newton, has recently announced that it is to be a
- licensee of the ARM chip which will be at the heart of the Newton
- family. Sharp joins two other ARM licensees, VLSI and GEC-Plessey.
-
- - Motorola
- Motorola has announced an agreement with Apple Computer, Inc. to
- license Apple's Newton technology in order to manufacture and market
- a handheld device featuring integrated, wireless communications
- capabilities based on the Newton operating system.
-
- - Siemens Private Communications Systems Group and ROLM
- Apple and Siemens announced their plans to collaborate on the
- development of NotePhone, a combination of Siemens-ROLM telephony and
- Newton technology which will provide access to telephone and fax
- features.
-
- - Cirrus Logic
- Cirrus Logic has announced their support of Newton technology by
- developing and supplying Newton-compatible chipsets for use by
- licensees of the Newton operating system and by Apple itself in its
- planned Newton products.
-
- - Kyushu Matsushita Electric
- Kyushu Matsushita Electric (KME) announced an agreement to license
- the Newton operating system from Apple for use in future products.
- Apple and KME also intend to explore the opportunity to include KME-
- provided technology in future Newton family products.
-
- - LSI Logic
- LSI Logic is manufacturing an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
- (ASIC) chip for Newton PDA's. The ASIC provides the interface
- between the microprocessor, the memory and the user interface. The
- device is cell-based, full custom and uses 1-micron process
- technology.
- Announcing the agreements, Gaston Bastiaens, vice president and
- general manager, Personal Interactive Electronics division at Apple,
- said, "Today we are setting the stage to create a worldwide standard
- for personal digital assistants available to the entire industry.
- This will allow the computer, consumer electronics and
- telecommunications industries to come together to provide a rich,
- integrated platform for the development community--and ultimately for
- all of their customers. We are very pleased with our progress so
- far, and look forward to joining with others in creating exciting new
- products based around Newton technologies."
-
- -30-
-
- Apple and the Apple logo are registered trademarks and Newton and
- PowerCD are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
- Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft; and
- NotePhone is a trademark of Siemens.
- ROLM is a registered trademark of ROLM Company.
- ARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
-
- Note to Editor: See attached Licensing Newton white paper for
- additional information.
-
-
- Attachment
-
- Licensing Newton
-
- "... as different industries converge and as these technologies come
- together, no single company will be able to control all that is
- needed to meet customer demand. This means that alliances will
- become increasingly important in the coming years"
- - John Sculley, Shareholders' Meeting, January 1993.
-
- Apple's Newton Licensing Strategy--Summary
-
- 1. We have developed a portfolio of licensable products, based on
- Newton technology.
-
- 2. We are committed to broadly licensing these products in order to
- create a standard.
-
- 3. We plan to retain control of the Newton architecture to maintain
- consistent user experience.
-
- Companies working with Apple on Newton
-
- - Sharp Corporation
- - Siemens AG & ROLM
- - Motorola, Inc.
- - Cirrus Logic
- - Kyushu Matsushita Electric
-
- ARM Semiconductor Partners:
-
- - GEC Plessey Semiconductors
- - Sharp Corporation
- - VLSI Technology
-
- Apple Computer, Inc. has shown that it can create 'hit products'.
- The Macintosh Classic, LC and PowerBook have each been both
- critically and popularly acclaimed. Apple believes that Newton
- technology will be another success. At the Consumer Electronics Show
- in 1992 Apple Chairman John Sculley coined the term Personal Digital
- Assistant, and indicated that Apple would have an offering in this
- brand new category. As we expected, many other companies soon
- afterwards announced that they had "PDA's" under development. Apple
- however had laid the ground and created the demand. We now have a
- licensing strategy which is designed to manage the complex business
- relationships that are required in order to bring this nascent
- industry to the market.
- Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics (PIE) Division has announced
- that it will license its Newton technology--what does this mean?
- As we have developed Newton technologies we have discovered ever-
- increasing ways in which customers would like to use these
- technologies. We believe that these core Newton technologies stand
- at the crossroads of the computer, consumer and communications
- industries, offering customers completely new ways of working and
- opportunities to re-engineer the ways that they work, learn and play.
- As industries and competing businesses converge, we see vibrant new
- interdependencies being created which demand that major industry
- players become co-operators in these new emerging businesses. This
- is new ground for many companies, including Apple. The strength of
- Newton technologies is such that we intend to come to the market
- accepted as the PDA standard.
- As we have shown our Newton technology to potential partners,
- customers and developers they have seen the potential that it brings
- to their products and businesses. Often other businesses have seen
- Newton technologies as a possible catalyst to bring to life many of
- the ideas and plans that they are holding for their own future
- products.
- We intend to reach out to a broad range of licensees. With these
- licensees we hope to make Newton an industry standard by delivering
- compatibility and unique performance capabilities to a broad range of
- customers. By adding additional licensees who bring valuable
- knowledge, skills and technology to the Newton platform we think we
- are better able to meet customers needs as industries converge and
- whole new classes of products come to market.
- Already several major corporations have indicated agreement to work
- with Apple on Newton technology. Our key partner in the development
- of Newton is Sharp Corporation . Other recently announcements
- included Siemens AG, Motorola , Cirrus Logic, and Kyushu Matsushita
- Electric. The ARM chip, at the heart of Newton, has been licensed to
- GEC-Plessey, VLSI and Sharp Corporation.
- We believe that we have developed a world-leading set of technologies
- in Newton. We expect market acceptance for not only Apple's
- implementation but also those of our licensees to be extremely high.
- This should give customers a wide variety of choices, in a wide
- variety of locations--with the promise of the quality and innovation
- signified by the Newton logo on the product. This large market will
- also lead to a wide range of applications, delivered in many
- different ways--online, off-the-shelf, through the mail, etc.
- Apple's online services are planned to be available to Newton-
- licensed products, providing such things as news, weather, sport,
- travel planning, financial services, mail and so on.
- We have developed a portfolio of licensable products and have created
- a package which allows corporations to make use of years of quality
- Apple research and development in order to quickly bring innovative
- products to market. The anticipated compatibility between licensee
- and Apple products should allow each participant's offerings to take
- advantage of a full range of software and accessories which will be
- developed by a whole community of developers including Apple, its
- licensees and other third parties. Apple also plans to create a
- comprehensive online business that offers a compelling range of
- services to owners of licensees' products.
- We intend to have a broadly accepted standard, and to work with our
- licensees to bring exciting innovative products to the market. In
- order to maintain the standard and grow the business for the benefits
- of developers, licensees and customers we plan to maintain control of
- the Newton architecture. We see this as essential to meet the needs
- of--and justify the investment of--our licensees. Apple will
- encourage the development of innovative products: one of the benefits
- of Newton technology is its flexibility, and we want to encourage
- licensees to take advantage of that in their products.
- We want to create a broad, vigorous base of licensees. We are
- developing industry-leading technology and we intend to support
- licensees worldwide who want to take advantage of that by bringing to
- their customers exciting, imaginative products.
-
- 3/25/93
-
- Apple, the Apple logo and Classic are registered trademarks and
- Newton and PowerBook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
- ARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
- Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
- ROLM is a registered trademark of ROLM Company.
-
-
- END
-
-
- Apple Press Releases
- PR Express
- News Break
- 3/25/93
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