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Mobile Business Workgroups Key To Widespread Wireless Data Use

1 November 1999

HiddenMind Founder Tells Kagan Conference: Mobile Business Workgroups Key To Widespread Wireless Data Use; Additional Panelists Include Research in Motion, InfoSeek and Motorola

    RALEIGH, N.C.--Nov. 1, 1999--HiddenMind Technology, a Research Triangle area based wireless software development firm, announced today that its Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Kristopher Tyra, spoke at the Kagan Wireless Telecom 2000 conference held on October 13, 1999in New York City. Mr. Tyra was part of a panel that discussed "Web Wise in a Wireless World: Applications that Make Dollars and Cents". Other panel members included: Dave Werezak, VP Marketing of Research in Motion, Art Clark, VP/Advanced Productivity Tools, Infoseek Corporation and Murali Narayanan, Marketing Director/Internet Connectivity Solutions Division, Motorola, Inc.
    Mr. Tyra commented on the unexpectedly slow adoption of consumer-oriented wireless data applications by the general population, comparing the situation to that of the early stages of the cellular phone industry.
    "There is every reason to expect that, just as business users, not consumers, were first to be trained to use cellular phones when they were first available; so too, in the emerging wireless data market, business users will be the first to get training on and use wireless messaging and data applications."
    Mr. Tyra also noted that the first step forward for this emerging market, which is now occurring, will be the deployment of wireless data applications for business workgroups that have a number of mobile employees and/or remote/mobile devices. These workgroups will be found in such diverse businesses as parts distribution, construction, hospitals, insurance claims, estimators, refineries, sales, large manufacturing facilities and the like. "Applications must be able to connect stationary, PC-based employees with key mobile employees with consistent interfaces and communication concepts."
    "However," he continued, "business managers will not provide training in wireless data application use unless they can be shown that there are significant cost savings or competitive advantages to be gained."
    Tyra went on to say, "Today's applications must reflect the fact that currently, U.S. wireless networks are limited in their data transmission and handling capabilities. The winning applications will be those designed for low bandwidth availability, transmission latency and frequent disconnection. The idea that information appliances will be significantly used to surf the web, for general e-mail or large Web-content downloads, is not consistent with the reality of current U.S. wireless infrastructure and costs."

    HiddenMind Products

    HiddenMind has developed applications, including HiddenMessenger(TM) (for general communications) and HiddenAssistant(TM) (for wireless workflow communications), that make practical use of today's available low bandwidth opportunities. These applications go far beyond the basic concepts of wireless e-mail, wireless instant messaging, Web surfing on the phone or delivering Web content to wireless devices.
    HiddenMind's products are particularly suited to process-oriented industries such as medical, insurance, construction, sales and manufacturing. In industries such as these, the value added by wireless routing of information is easily quantified and there is clear opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of an organization's Intranet for implementation of its business processes. HiddenMind's applications accomplish this by providing device interoperability among pagers, PDAs, laptops, cell phones and other information appliances, using Mobitex, Reflex, CDPD, CDMA, TDMA and GSM carriers.
    HiddenMind's products are Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) compliant. They also utilize Sun Microsystem's Java and Jini technologies, as well as Extensible Markup Language (XML) to deliver messages and business data forms to various devices and to trigger other software processes.

    About Kristopher Tyra

    Kristopher Tyra has made a number of notable contributions to the software industry during his career. In the late 1980's, his work with distributed software development environments led to the development of an object-oriented Networking System for Northern Telecom that insulated the applications teams from the issues of network programming or protocols. Other achievements include senior design and development responsibilities for the IBM AIX/ESA project and the subsequent design and implementation of an integrated OS/2 and AIX software production environment. Mr. Tyra was also responsible for the design and development of make++, An Object Oriented Software Development Tool.
    In 1994, Kristopher founded what is now HiddenMind Technology, Inc. and has pioneered a number of innovative projects focused on the development of component software and tools for platform-independent development environments.
    Mr. Tyra holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from North Carolina State University, has published several papers in the area of software development technology, and is the holder of several related patents

    About HiddenMind Technology

    During the past 5 years, HiddenMind has provided software products and services to such blue-chip firms as Northern Telecom, BellSouth, IBM, AT&T, Dow Jones, Salomon Brothers and Merrill Lynch. In the last several years, the Company has focused on the development of advanced tools for multi-platform device interoperability in client-server, web-enabled and wireless environments. These activities led to the introduction this year of HiddenLogic(TM) (patent pending), a sophisticated wireless data communications routing/data management software applications development framework that integrates wired and wireless data messaging with the business processes.
    HiddenMind has entered into strategic partnerships with a number of significant players in the wireless marketplace, including BellSouth Mobility DCS and Omnipoint Technologies. HiddenMind products are currently deployed, and their use is being expanded, at Nortel Networks. HiddenMind also recently announced a licensing agreement to provide HiddenMessenger to HomeWrite.com. HiddenMind is pursuing a number of opportunities with other web portals, telecommunications carriers, device manufacturers, systems integrators and other vertical market partners.