MOTOROLA UNVEILS THE I.250 PLATFORM - THE INDUSTRY'S MOST COMPREHENSIVE 2.5G GSM/GPRS PLATFORM.

Motorola, Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) has announced its 2.5G Innovative Convergence (i.250) platform -- a comprehensive silicon-to-software solution for 2.5G Global System for Mobile Communication/Global Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS) wireless handsets. This scalable, highly integrated platform combines an advanced chipset with an industry-leading development environment, field-proven GPRS protocol software, type certification support, and best-in-class system cost to support a complete range of voice-centric, voice/data, and data-centric products.

The new platform, which is designed to help global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) develop state- of-the-art products to enable anytime, anywhere communication for consumers, joins Motorola's broad GPRS product portfolio. With the i.250 platform, Motorola is leveraging its GPRS expertise to give manufacturers unprecedented flexibility and scalability, coupled with the "always on" connectivity today's consumers demand.

"The turnkey i.250 platform is designed to reduce system cost while speeding time to market for handset manufacturers," said Pete Shinyeda, corporate vice president of Motorola's Wireless and Broadband Systems Group. "Its streamlined, compact design features the lowest component part-count in the industry. Manufacturers can easily add personality and packaging to their handset products, focusing on applications, branding, features and style while enjoying instant access to cutting-edge technology. The bundled platform gives them unprecedented flexibility for getting to market quickly, easily, and cost-effectively. In addition, our platform solutions can scale from voice-only wireless clients to rich multimedia platforms, easing the migration to 3G solutions and reducing overall costs."

The i.250 platform is expected to capture a significant share of the wireless semiconductor market, which is forecasted to reach $35 billion in 2004, with more than 480 million GSM/GPRS handsets in production by 2005 (Gartner Group, Dataquest, July 2001).

"In the next three to four years, companies like Motorola that get out in front like you are doing with this announcement will be the ones that last in the marketplace, the ones that will win," said Andrew M. Seybold, senior partner, the Andrew Seybold Group, a consulting firm that specializes in the connected mobility space.

To help manufacturers meet customers' rising demands for speed, connectivity, and plentiful mobile applications, the i.250 platform combines a mature, field-proven GPRS protocol stack and certified communication protocol software with a comprehensive integrated development environment (IDE). The mature, field-tested GPRS architecture enhances bandwidth to offer "always-on" connectivity and proven interoperability with a range of portable devices- personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, laptops, web tablets and more.

Built on a flexible open architecture, the i.250 platform is expandable to EDGE and scalable to 3G systems such as the ultra-fast 2Mbps UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) standards. The platform allows manufacturers to use faster data services over existing GSM carriers, generating revenue immediately while gaining the ability to migrate to 3G technology. A comprehensive portfolio of 3G platforms will be included in the family.

Scalability is enhanced by PAN-to-WAN connectivity, software and hardware reusability, and flexible memory structures for combining features. Plus, Motorola is one of only two licensed architectural partners for ARM technology.