|
Summus Announces Availability of Mobile Photo
Services Suite with Fujifilm; New Product Suite Provides Powerful and Innovative
Photo-Messaging and Printing Solutions
Jan. 4, 2005 Summus, Inc. (USA) (OTCBB: SUMU), a leading provider of mobile
media applications that optimize the consumer wireless experience, today
announces the general availability of a comprehensive and powerful suite of
photo services and solutions for the mobile phone built in conjunction with Fuji
Photo Film U.S.A., Inc.
Fujifilm Get the Picture Mobile Services provides consumers and carriers
with a complete "end-to-end" mobile photo-messaging solution. Consumers will now
have the ability to wirelessly send photos to Fujifilm's extensive network of
over 5,000 retail photo centers for printing. The full suite of products and
solutions is expected to launch in early 1Q'05 on most major national wireless
carriers.
With multi-megapixel camera phones rapidly becoming available today, the
convergence of the camera and phone continues to redefine the mobile imaging
market. A fully converged mobile solution that addresses photo management,
messaging, and printing is a necessity rather than an option, and will allow the
consumer to quickly and easily realize the full value and potential of this new
class of communications device The Fujifilm suite of products answers this need
by combining the convenience and quality of digital lab system prints at the
nation's largest retailers with the photo messaging and management tools that
allow consumers to easily organize the digital, always-available world of
today's camera phone. This is the only mobile solution that allows the consumer
to quickly and easily realize the full value and potential of this new class of
communications device, at a very reasonable cost. The suite of products
includes:
-- Fujifilm Mobile Print Button - Provides wireless carriers, handset
manufacturers and retail photo service providers with the industry-leading
solution for getting camera phone photos printed to over 5,000 retailers
nationwide. Photos can be wirelessly transmitted directly to photo-finishing
retailers. The same quality prints at the same familiar retailers are now
available to consumers as a true one-stop solution.
-- Powered by Fujifilm Mobile Photo solutions - Provides wireless carriers
with a complete "end-to-end" mobile photo-messaging solution, which can be
co-branded by the carrier or partner. The solution includes
-- Back-end photo websites and hosting
-- Mobile photo-messaging clients
-- Seamless photo uploading from an MMS enabled phone
-- Retail or mail-back print solutions supported by Fujifilm's strong network
of retail photo-finishers.
-- Fujifilm Get the Picture Mobile Suite of products - Fujifilm Get the
Picture Mobile will be available on three major wireless technologies. The
Fujifilm Suite allows customers to easily access their free Fujifilm.net account
to view, share, manage, and to print photos to leading retailers nationwide.
-- Get the Picture Mobile v2.0 for carriers offering WAP v1.1 and v2.0,
-- Get the Picture Mobile BREW(R) for carriers offering QUALCOMM's BREW
solution.
-- Get the Picture Mobile J2ME for carriers offering Java 2 Platform, Micro
Edition (J2ME) MIDP 1.0 and MIDP 2.0 technology-enabled handsets.
-- Fujifilm Mobile Postcard - The Fujifilm Mobile Postcard, the first in the
new suite of Fujifilm and Summus photo applications, was recently introduced on
Cingular Wireless. Subscribers can now use their camera phones to create
personalized Fujifilm photo postcards, which are automatically sent to anyone in
the country via U.S. Mail. Visit www.cingular.com/postcard for more
information.
Camera phones and the use of mobile photo sharing continue to see strong
growth. Market research firm Canalys just released a study stating that
two-thirds of all mobile phones shipped worldwide in the third quarter of 2004
were camera phones. In addition, nearly 55 percent of mobile consumers with a
camera phone are currently paying to send pictures from their cell phones.
Nearly a third of camera phone users take pictures at least once per week, with
more than 3 percent using the camera phone feature every day, according to a
recent NPD Group report, "Marketing Beyond Minutes: Tracking Cell Phone Photos,
Games and Ringtones."
"The collaboration between Summus and Fujifilm has resulted in a truly
compelling suite of wireless photo solution products," said John Prendergast, VP
Strategic Development. "Connecting Fujifilm's strong network of retail photo
centers to the mobile consumer through the Summus applications extend Fujifilm's
lead in the digital photo-imaging market by creating seamless, easy-to-use and
complete mobile photo solutions."
"Launching a suite of photo products with Fujifilm reinforces Summus' goal of
bringing high-quality, branded mobile applications to the consumer mass-market,"
said Gary Ban, CEO of Summus. "The camera phone represents a new level of
communication in mobile devices and Summus is once again positioned at the
leading edge of this growth curve. We believe that the Fujifilm suite of mobile
products will significantly contribute to 2005 revenue growth."
For more information on the Fujifilm Get the Picture Mobile suite of
products, visit www.summus.com/mobile_applications/photo_services/.
About Summus
Summus is a leading provider of mobile media applications that optimize the
consumer wireless experience. Summus partners with leading content brands to
develop compelling and unique wireless applications and content for the mobile
phone, focused within the most popular areas of growth, including
photo-messaging, multi-player games, news/information and personalization.
Summus currently offers an ever-growing list of 30 mobile phone applications
deployed through 23 major wireless carriers in the U.S. and abroad. Summus
designs and develops these applications with the industry's most intuitive
navigation that is designed for a consistently superior user experience. For
more information, see www.summus.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties concerning Summus' business, products, and financial results.
Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. More
information about potential risk factors that could affect our business,
products, and financial results is included in Summus' annual report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and in reports subsequently filed by
Summus with the Securities and Exchange Commission("SEC"). All documents are
available through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval
system (EDGAR) at www.sec.gov or from Summus'
web site at www.summus.com. Summus hereby
disclaims any obligation to publicly update the information provided above,
including forward-looking statements, to reflect subsequent events or
circumstances.
BlueFuel is a trademark of Summus, Inc. (USA). All other trademarks and/or
registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
|