Archive for December 2006

 
 

Cingular Wireless Offers New-Look, $199 Palm Treo 680

New Smart Device Offers Cingular Consumer and Business Customers a Slim and Sleek Device Packed Full of Functionality

Cingular Wireless and Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today introduced the new Palm(R) Treo(TM) 680 smart device, whose brand-new look, broad range of features and economical price will appeal to both consumers and business customers — just in time for the holidays. The Treo 680 quad-band world phone on the Palm OS(R) platform — which is available beginning Friday, Nov. 24, for as low as $199.99 — boasts Palm’s hallmark ease of use to keep any user productive, all with a slim and compact feel.

Cingular business and consumer customers will be able to better balance their personal and business lives, as the all-in-one Treo 680 seamlessly combines a compact, full-featured mobile phone with so much more, all at a competitive price. Users can do even more with their phone, from accessing email and editing documents at the airport to organizing photos and music while waiting for a friend at the coffee shop.

Market research firm In-Stat estimates that 25 percent of all wireless handsets worldwide will be PDAs and smartphones by 2011, which makes the Treo 680 the ideal phone both for feature-phone upgraders and new users.

The Palm Treo 680 is easy to use and affordable because of the multiple innovations it encompasses:

– A new internal antenna enables a sleeker design;

– An improved phone application on the Treo 680 smart device allows users to dial faster;

– The ability to ignore calls with a quick text message lets users tell a caller “I’m in a meeting” or “Can’t talk now”;

– The large, bright color screen is perfect for viewing email, documents or spreadsheets via DataViz Documents To Go(R), and even photos and movies;

– The highly regarded built-in QWERTY keyboard has improved buttons, making it even easier to type emails or SMS messages;

– The messaging application displays text-messaging conversations as “threaded chats,” similar to IM, so users can see their entire conversation with a particular person; and

– The Treo 680 smart device also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder and video player, with simpler organization for photos and photo slideshows.

“The Palm Treo 680 will open up the popular Palm experience to a much wider audience of Cingular customers,” said Jeff Bradley, vice president, business data services, for Cingular Wireless. “This next-generation Treo comes with all of the outstanding business features that Palm devotees have come to expect plus rich entertainment capabilities, and all at a very attractive price that will appeal both to businesses and individual users.”

The Palm Treo 680 operates on Cingular’s nationwide EDGE network, the largest national high-speed wireless data network in the United States with availability in more than 13,000 cities and towns, and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Treo 680 users also can take their device with them abroad to make calls on six continents and over 190 countries, with wireless data roaming in more than 115 countries.

EDGE’s widespread coverage makes the Treo 680 an ideal platform for business customers and consumers who want an easy-to-use way to check their email, send SMS, browse the Web and more.

“Palm remains focused on introducing Treo smartphones that are user-friendly and affordable for any audience — from single users to wide-scale business deployments,” said Tara Griffin, Palm vice president and general manager. “The Treo 680 from Cingular Wireless is an excellent proof point. We have a tremendous opportunity to serve customers the world over by helping them stay more connected to important people and information, whether it’s through contacts and calendar, email, messaging, documents, web browsing, photos or music. This mobile phone enhances work and leisure time.”

Business Customer-focused Solution

While Palm’s ease of use and affordability are beneficial for new or upgrading consumers, business users also can take advantage of the Treo 680 smart device, because of the following:

– Flexibility: The all-in-one Treo 680 smart device is ideal for deployment across any business, small or large, and offers the security and flexibility needed by IT departments for easy integration;

– High return on investment: Because of its attractive price and ease of use, the Treo 680 brings increased mobile productivity to help businesses realize a quick return on investment, all in a budget-friendly smart device;

– Staying productive: Phone, web, add-on business applications and more help customers stay in touch and on top of their work; and

– Staying connected: Customers can access such Cingular-enabled wireless email solutions as Cingular Xpress Mail, Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, and Good(TM) Mobile Messaging from Good Technology, as well as POP3 and IMAP accounts.

“The Palm Treo 680 smartphone is a natural and affordable choice for our business,” said Robert DeLille, chief executive officer of Creative Office Environments. “With more on-device memory and the availability of intuitive applications, such as Google Maps for Mobile, on the Cingular Wireless network, our workforce can be more productive and stay in touch with customers and colleagues.”

Pricing and Availability

The Treo 680 is available beginning Friday, Nov. 24, for as low as $199.99 to consumers and businesses nationwide at Cingular Wireless retail stores, www.cingular.com, select national retailers, through Cingular’s B2B sales organization and at http://www.palm.com/treo680. A variety of monthly data plans are available, including an unlimited Cingular PDA Connect plan for $44.99 per month.

For a limited time, the Treo 680 will come with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go service and Yahoo! Music For Mobile. Users have the ability to access the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music library from the phone and to send tracks remotely to a PC.

The Palm Treo 680 from Cingular Wireless also supports a wide variety of third-party, Cingular Wireless certified applications, such as the TeleNav GPS Navigator(TM) solution. With TeleNav GPS Navigator, Treo 680 users now can get turn-by-turn voice and on-screen GPS directions directly on their device for use when driving or walking.

Alcatel and Lucent complete merger creating world’s leading communication solutions provider

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced the completion of their merger transaction and that they will begin operations as the world’s leading communication solutions provider on December 1st, 2006. The new company Alcatel-Lucent, with one of the largest global R&D capabilities in communications and the broadest wireless, wireline and services portfolio, is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. The company will be traded on Euronext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from December 1st, 2006 under a new common ticker (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU). As a result of the merger, each outstanding share of Lucent common stock has been converted into the right to receive 0.1952 of an Alcatel ADS. In connection with the merger, Alcatel has issued approximately 878 million shares, which is equivalent to the total number of ADS to be issued to the holders of Lucent common stock. Following the completion of the merger, approximately 2.31 billion ordinary shares of Alcatel-Lucent are outstanding.

Serge Tchuruk, appointed today as Chairman of the Board of Alcatel-Lucent, said: “Alcatel-Lucent will be for our customers a partner with the scale and scope to design, build and manage increasingly complex networks that deliver advanced converged services and communications experience to the end-user. That is what Alcatel-Lucent will deliver with an unparalleled focus on execution, innovation and service for our customers: the company will have the most experienced global services team in the telecommunications industry, as well as one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the industry. In fact, our combined company is ideally positioned to help our customers transform their networks so they can offer new kinds of personalized, blended applications and services.”

Patricia Russo, appointed today as Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel-Lucent, added: “Through this merger, we are bringing together two top-ranking companies to form an undisputed leader in the industry, a company poised to enrich people’s lives by transforming the way the world communicates. Alcatel-Lucent is a strong and enduring ally that service providers, governments and enterprises can count on to help them unlock new market and revenue opportunities. This combination represents a strategic fit of vision, geography, solutions and people, leveraging the best of both companies to deliver meaningful communications solutions that are personalized, simple to adopt and available globally. Both Alcatel and Lucent embraced a common culture of innovation and excellence that will help ensure the success of our merger.”

A global communications solutions provider

With a comprehensive and diversified portfolio of complementary products, Alcatel-Lucent is well-positioned to address the fastest growing areas of network transformation. The company is a leader in IPTV, broadband access, carrier IP, IMS and next-generation networks, and 3G spread spectrum (UMTS and CDMA). With more than 18,000 employees working in services worldwide, the company has the largest and most experienced global services team in the industry. In enterprise communications solutions, Alcatel-Lucent is No. 1 in Europe and has more than 250,000 enterprise and government customers worldwide.

A global reach with local presence

With a worldwide presence in 130 countries, 79,000 employees (after completion of the Thales transaction) and balanced revenues across all regions, Alcatel-Lucent has strong customer relationships with the 100 largest telecommunications operators in the world. The company will have four geographic regions: Asia-Pacific, Europe and North, Europe and South and North America, to answer the needs of service providers, enterprises and end-users in the most advanced telecommunication markets, as well as in high-growth economies.

There will be five Business Groups: the Wireline Business Group, the Wireless Business Group and the Convergence Business Group (addressing the needs of the carrier market), the Enterprise Business Group and the Service Business Group. Each Business Group will have a decentralized regional organization that will provide strong local support to customers.

In addition there will be several corporate functions that support the company including worldwide integrated supply chain and procurement, finance, information technology, marketing, human resources, legal and communications.

“While our respective corporate structures have changed, one constant remains: our commitment to be a first class corporate citizen and to act in a socially responsible way in interactions with all our stakeholders,” said Patricia Russo.

Unrivaled breadth and depth of research and innovation expertise

Approximately 23,000 of the 79,000 total number of employees at Alcatel-Lucent are in R&D, including global Bell Labs which will remain headquartered in New Jersey, USA. With Euro 2.7 billion invested in R&D in calendar year 2005 by Alcatel and Lucent and 25,000 active patents, Alcatel-Lucent stands as an innovation powerhouse, featuring one of the largest global R&D capabilities in communications ready to partner and collaborate with customers on breakthrough technology. Alcatel-Lucent also leads standards initiatives with some 600 experts participating in 130 standardization bodies.

Creating Shareholder Value

Significant cost synergies are expected to be achieved within three years of closing and will come from several areas, including consolidating support functions, optimizing the supply chain and procurement structure, leveraging R&D and services across a larger base, and reducing the combined worldwide workforce by approximately 9,000 employees. The merger is expected to result in approximately Euro 1.4 billion in pre-tax annual cost synergies. A substantial majority of the restructuring activity is expected to be completed within 24 months after closing. The transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings per share in the first year post closing with synergies, excluding restructuring charges and amortization of intangible assets.

Corporate governance

The 14 Members of the Board of Directors are: Daniel Bernard, W. Frank Blount, Jozef Cornu, Linnet Deily, Robert Denham, Edward Hagenlocker, Jean-Pierre Halbron, Karl Krapek, Daniel Lebègue, Patricia Russo, Henry Schacht and Serge Tchuruk, and two additional jointly agreed directors appointed by the Alcatel-Lucent Board: Sylvia Jay and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, who were not members of either Alcatel Board of Directors or Lucent Board of Directors prior to the merger. There will be two Board observers representing the employee shareholders of the company’s Employee Investment Fund: Jean-Pierre Desbois and Thierry de Loppinot.