Oslo, NORWAY -- (press release excerpt) — Birdstep and Screen Media have signed an agreement to cooperate on aspects of development of the FreePad, Screen Media's wireless communication device designed for private domestic use. The FreePad will be the size of an A4 page and will give complete access to the Internet, contain a wireless telephone, and, in time, include an electronic diary and provide… electronic control of the home (see story). The two parties will cooperate on the development of new solutions within wireless communication and intelligent home-servers, based on Birdstep's embedded database engine.

“Birdstep has developed a database solution with such extreme speed and small size, it seems like they are made for our FreePad. We have searched all over the world for a solution that matched our specific needs, and therefore it is almost incredible that a superior technology has been developed 500 metres outside our doorstep. Considering that Opera Software is another important contributor, the FreePad is an exiting Norwegian industrial cooperation, and that is exactly the way we want it. We will probably also integrate Birdstep's database technology in our market leading publishing system iMaker,” says CEO Carl Henrik Janson of Screen Media.

“We believe the FreePad, in all its simplicity, will become the basis for completely new user patterns on the net. With its fast start-up time, combined with wireless communication for speech and information, and a specially made user interface, most of the complexity of a PC is eliminated,” says Janson. “Use, don't understand!” is the vision behind Screen Media's products, adds Janson.

“Screen Media is a pioneering company that dares to challenge the giants of the electronic industry. It's impressive to see all they have achieved so far, and it will be great fun to be a part of this in the future. We share Screen Media's view that the market for such terminals will become very substantial, and our entry into this project has an exiting business potential,” says CEO Henning Klemp of Birdstep.

The first concept models of the FreePad are expected to be available on the market as early as the first quarter of 2001.

 
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