Synergy and Motorola Announce DragonPen Software for 3Com Palm Connected Organizer
HONG KONG — December 18, 1998 — New Technology Enables Display and Recognition of Traditional Chinese Handwriting
Synergy Technology Distribution Limited and Motorola, Lexicus Division (NYSE:MOT) announced today the release of an innovative Chinese handwriting recognition software for the 3Com(R) Palm Connected Organizers.
The DragonPen(TM) software, which recognizes and displays traditional Chinese characters, is available for the Palm III(TM) & PalmPilot(TM) platforms. The DragonPen product allows users to input more than 5,000 traditional Chinese characters in the most natural way — with their own handwriting.
DragonPen software's recognition engine is derived from Motorola, Lexicus Division's award-winning WisdomPen(TM) desktop software product. Motorola's experience with its WisdomPen software has allowed the new DragonPen product to exhibit high accuracy and input speed in a compact form suitable for the PalmPilot platform.
The DragonPen product's Chinese display capability is one of many products from Motorola Semiconductor's innovative Red Dragon Program, which recently won the 1998 Hong Kong Industrial award for Consumer Product Design.
Motorola Semiconductor's Chinese display technology brings Red Dragon's expertise in Chinese embedded environments to leading personal digital assistant (PDA) products such as the Palm Connected Organizers. The DragonPen product is yet another example of Motorola's strong commitment and leadership in the Asia Pacific PDA market.
Francis Fong, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Synergy said, "We are pleased to announce that, finally, there is a Chinese handwriting recognition software product that works on the Palm Connected Organizer.
"It is a major breakthrough to have proven that the Motorola DragonBall(TM) CPU, used in all Palm Connected Organizers, is powerful enough to handle Chinese handwriting recognition input. We would like to thank Motorola for their full support in the development of the DragonPen software."
"Motorola intends to be at the forefront of development of Chinese software platforms. We have found Synergy to be an excellent partner in accomplishing this goal," said Dr. Ronjon Nag, Vice President and General Manager of Motorola, Lexicus Division.
"Our Red Dragon program will enable manufacturers to build cost-effective Chinese handheld computing platforms and lead in the robust handheld devices market," said Joe Yiu, Asia/Pacific Vice President and General Manager of Motorola Semiconductor Product Sector.
"Through partnership with Synergy and Motorola, Lexicus Division, Red Dragon is poised to achieve enormous success in the handheld devices market."
The DragonPen pros specifically designed to meet the demands of Chinese Palm Connected Organizer users and enable them to view and input Chinese characters in an easy to use, intuitive way. It provides high-speed recognition of Chinese characters with a response time of less than one second.
The DragonPen system can run on Palm Connected Organizers, with a minimum memory requirement of 650KB, and is compatible with most existing software applications that run on the Palm Computing Platform.
Pricing and Availability
DragonPen software is now available for download at http://www.dragonpen.com.hk for a price of US $ 27.99. It is also available through authorized resellers & retailers, for a suggested retail price of HK $ 220.00. Please visit the product web site at http://www.dragonpen.com.hk for more product information.
Synergy Company Background
Synergy Technology Distribution Limited is a fully owned subsidiary of Synergy Pacific Holding Ltd. Synergy Groups started its computer business back in 1987 and is now a major IT distributor in Hong Kong, specializing in distribution of modems & PDAs.
Synergy is the market leader in the system integration industry, especially in WANs (Wide Area Networks), RAS (Remote Access System), ISP (Internet Service Providers), PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) & POS (Point of Sales) solutions. Synergy was the first company to bring x2 & V.90 56K analog modem technology to the Hong Kong market.
Motorola Company Background
Lexicus, a division of Motorola, was founded in 1992 by some of the world's leading researchers of speech and handwriting recognition. Acquired by Motorola in 1993, Lexicus specializes in bringing innovative design skills to the production and integration of speech and handwriting recognition technology applications to consumer electronic platforms.
Its strengths in rapid prototyping and user testing drive the creation of customized user interfaces that are intuitive, creative and exciting to use. Lexicus technologies include the retail WisdomPenTM Chinese handwriting recognition product, as well as speech and handwriting recognition for embedded systems.
Motorola is a global leader in advanced electronic systems and services. It liberates the power of technology by creating software-enhanced products that provide integrated customer solutions and Internet access via wireless and satellite communications, as well as computing, networking, and automotive electronics.
Motorola also provides essential digital building blocks in the form of embedded semiconductors, controls and systems. Sales in 1997 were $ 29.8 billion.
Note to Editors: M, Motorola, WidsomPen and DragonBall are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders. Palm, PalmPilot and Palm III are trademarks and Palm Computing and 3Com are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. DragonPen is trademark of Synergy Technology Distribution Limited.
All other brands and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
CONTACT:
Motorola, Lexicus Division, Hong Kong
Kevin Leung, 852-2966-4016
[email protected]