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Glympse and Mercedes-Benz Announce Partnership to Provide Realtime Location Sharing While Driving


mercedes-benz (select to view enlarged photo)

REDMOND, WA--June 7, 2012: Mercedes-Benz and Glympse, the mobile technology company that pioneered temporary real-time location sharing, announced their partnership at the Detroit Telematics Conference. They are teaming up to provide real-time location sharing to their drivers by integrating Glympse into the new Mercedes-Benz Digital DriveStyle application, set to launch in the new A-Class in September.

“Glympse is a location sharing app for everyday people in everyday situations--it's about making life easier”

Drivers will now be able to use the Mercedes Digital DriveStyle application to select a recipient, set a timer, and 'send a Glympse' to anyone they choose. The recipient of the Glympse will receive a text or email link, which will show the driver's real-time location on an interactive map. Consistent with Glympse's unique approach to location sharing, when the timer expires, the location sharing will automatically stop. Because Glympse is a universal sharing solution, the recipient doesn't require any special software or device, just a web browser.

"Glympse is a location sharing app for everyday people in everyday situations--it's about making life easier," said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse, Inc. "We've been excited about the automotive potential for quite some time. We're thrilled to now make that vision a reality with a world class automaker like Mercedes-Benz."

"Mercedes-Benz customers will benefit from this partnership because they will be offered a safe, effective, and efficient way to share their location while driving," said Johann Jungwirth, President and CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. "The cooperation with Glympse now makes it easy for our customers to share their location temporarily with their kids, friends, coworkers, or family. We're excited to let users integrate our Digital DriveStyle application and Glympse into their lifestyles."

"We've already seen how enormously popular Glympse is on mobile phones, having just crossed 3 million downloads, accompanied by fantastic user and press reviews," said Timo Bauer, VP of Business Development at Glympse. "Now that ease of use and functionality has made its way seamlessly into your Mercedes-Benz dash experience."

Mercedes-Benz integrated Glympse into its Digital DriveStyle application using the Glympse partner SDK. The partnership was announced at the Telematics Detroit conference.

About Glympse, Inc.

Glympse allows GPS-enabled mobile phone users to share their location for a pre-set period of time with anyone they choose. Available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone, Glympse visually answers the question of "Where are you?" with a dynamic map that updates a person's whereabouts in real-time. Glympse was developed with consumer safety and privacy in mind, and the service provides users with complete control over WHO can view their location, WHEN and for HOW LONG.

The Glympse app has been included in many Top 10 and must-have app lists in both mainstream and technology press, including TechCrunch, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Mashable, The New York Times, and CNET. Glympse was also recently recognized for "Most Innovative Use of Location by a Company" by JiWire and Geo-Loco's The LOCALS awards, and recently won 1st place for "Best Location Sharing App on Android" in the Best App Ever Awards 2011.

Glympse and GlympseWatch are trademarks of Glympse Inc.