'Broadband to the Hand' - Soft fabric keyboard now available for Orange SPV
SOFT KEYBOARD PIONEER ELEKSEN ANNOUNCES COMMERCIAL AVAILABILITY OF FLEXIBLE KEYBOARD FOR SPV SMARTPHONE FROM ORANGE
New fabric keyboard technology now the essential accessory for Orange SPV customers across Europe
London, UK, March 11th, 2003 - Eleksen, the UK-based world leader in soft interface technology, today announced that its fabric keyboard is now available as an accessory for users of the SPV Smartphone in the four European countries that have launched the device - France, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK. Available through both Orange's direct and indirect sales outlets, the flexible keyboard - which can be crumpled and folded repeatedly without impacting performance - represents a major advance in ending the data entry bottleneck that affects small, mobile devices.
"It's no good increasing the bandwidth of the network if the last few inches to the keypad still restrict the user," said Bernard Smith, CEO, Eleksen. "While handset manufacturers and mobile operators continue to increase the power and capabilities of wireless applications and services, their creativity - and revenue streams - are going to remain restricted by the physical limits that traditional phone keypads place on the user's interaction with this new world of commerce and entertainment. This issue is going to be particularly important as mobile gaming begins to take off, and customers become frustrated with the limitations of traditional keypad input."
Andy Thomas, Device Development for OrangeWorld, Orange said: "The flexible keyboard makes texting and emailing even easier. Usability is a crucial driver for the take up of the rich new Orange services we are developing at OrangeWorld." He added: "This is a fantastic accessory that makes the SPV an even more compelling device for Orange customers - especially business customers. Additionally, consumer customers are continually seeking new ways to interact with content and games on their SPV, and the keyboard provides a versatile next link in that value chain."
Eleksen's unique ElekTex technology makes it possible to create highly durable, all-fabric keyboards for use with almost any mobile device. This gives handset and applications designers the opportunity to develop completely new ways for customers to use and control their increasingly complex devices - without adding unnecessary overheads in terms of size, weight or power consumption.
For further information, please contact:
Steve Green
Sales and Marketing Director
Eleksen Ltd
Tel: +44 1753 659432
Mobile: +44 7733 362365
Email: steve.green@eleksen.com
Web: http://www.eleksen.com
About ElekSen
ElekSen is a switching and sensing company that develops and licences soft interfacing means. ElekSen combines expertise in electronics, software, fabric structures and production engineering. ElekTex is the first technology release from ElekSen and is already defining the capabilities of soft interfacing. The technology has been developed to enable creation of a new generation of consumer products with soft, flexible and lightweight interfaces.
ElekTex combines conductive fabric structures with microchip technology. It is lightweight, durable, flexible, cost competitive and affords designers new opportunities in designing contoured and portable products for emerging product markets. ElekSen has development partners and licensees in several sectors including telecoms, PDAs, automotive and healthcare.