QUALCOMM & MICROSOFT CORP. ALLIANCE TO ENABLE NEW WIRELESS DEVICES & DATA SERVICES.

QUALCOMM Inc., a leader of code division multiple access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, and Microsoft Corp., the leader in software for personal and business computing, announced the intent to form a strategic alliance to jointly define and develop advanced wireless, multimedia-capable devices.

The companies will focus on developing hardware reference designs for mobile device, including smart phones based on the Microsoft Mobile Explorer wireless communication platform and wireless Pocket PCs using QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies' (QCT's) iMSM4100 Internet Mobile Station Model (iMSM) chipset and system software solutions. QUALCOMM and Microsoft will then work together to promote their solutions for advanced wireless devices to CDMA carriers, handset and device vendors, and application and content developers worldwide.

Products developed under this alliance between QUALCOMM and Microsoft are expected to incorporate technologies from both QUALCOMM and Microsoft that will provide an optimized platform for mobile phone manufacturers, enable operators to accelerate development and deployment of CDMA wireless data services, and provide a rich and widely available applications environment for third-party application and content developers.

Areas of collaboration between QUALCOMM and Microsoft will include distribution of reference designs, end-to-end product trials with key operators, and cooperation on tools for application and content developers. The companies will also work together on promotion opportunities for development of wireless mobile devices, including the Microsoft Mobile Explorer-based smart phone and Pocket PC platforms.

QCT's recently announced iMSM product family will feature different chips and system software solutions available over time and will be targeted to different segments of the wireless device market.

Designed for current and next-generation CDMA networks, the iMSM family will help accelerate the evolution of multiple classes of multimedia and Internet-capable devices, combining telephony, full Internet protocol stacks and drivers and handheld computing functions into feature-rich wireless handsets that include larger screens, more memory and greater data-processing capabilities.

Microsoft Mobile Explorer is a modular wireless applications and services platform for phones that allows industry partners to choose the solution which best fits their needs using components selected from a suite that includes a dual-mode microbrowser, a smart phone based on the Windows CE operating system, additional applications and server-side components. The Microsoft Mobile Explorer wireless communication platform is designed to deliver wireless data services such as secure corporate data access, e-mail, the Internet, location-based services and electronic commerce.

QUALCOMM and Microsoft formed Wireless Knowledge LLC, a joint venture, in 1998. Wireless Knowledge provides platforms and services to corporate customers and application providers to enable applications for the mobile Internet.