Appear Networks enters the Chilean Market

Stockholm, Sweden, 23 June 2004 - Appear Networks, a Swedish leader specialising in context aware services for Wi-Fi networks, today announced its collaboration with CORFO - the Chilean organisation in charge of promoting national development. This collaboration, subsidized by the Chile-Sweden Cooperation Fund, allows Appear Networks to explore potential strategic partnerships with Chilean companies in order to initiate a technology transfer program with particular emphasis on the Wi-Fi market.

CORFO supports innovative Chilean companies whose incentives are of strategic impact to Chile. The Chile-Sweden Cooperation Fund provides the funding of relevant CORFO projects which allow business alliances to flourish between these countries. Both CORFO and Appear Networks have begun a series of programs identifying new opportunities in specific sectors: in public transportation, conference centers and with wireless network operators, the main areas of deployment of Appear Networks’ intelligent Wi-Fi technology, APS. This technology is of particular advantage to these types of industries because of the large majority of wireless workers active within them and their needs whilst away from their desks. It allows for the access to the network using PDAs and the wireless network available to pursue specific tasks that were not possible before.

“Through the agreement with CORFO, Appear Networks becomes an important player in the development of the Chilean technology market which is ready to receive highly specialised technologies like the one developed by Appear Networks. Appear Networks’ presence in Chile will allow for the establishment of strategic and commercial alliances, and will without a doubt be very beneficial to the exchange of industrial technology between both countries”, states Beatriz Bonifetti, Executive Director of the Chile-Sweden Foundation. “It will also stimulate the recruitment of experts, technology prospecting missions and the evaluation of strategic partnerships”

“It is an honour for Appear Networks to collaborate with CORFO and Chile-Sweden Cooperation Fund on this technology transfer and innovation project”, says Alex Cabrera, Co-Founder and Vice-President of Appear Networks Customer Management. “Appear Networks’ technology is being introduced as much in Europe as it is in Asia, and our goal is to initiate our expansion into Latin America with acclaimed partners such as Cisco and Intel and in the near future with Chilean collaborators.”

Appear Networks’ Appear Provisioning Server (APS) technology has already obtained international clients and associates that are of importance to the IT domain and are present in Scandinavia, France, the United States, and Japan. Amongst these clients are the subways of Stockholm (SL) and Paris (RATP), the French railway SNCF, the University of Geneva, the Scandinavian international exhibitions, France Telecom and so on. These new instalments have been created with the participation of associates such as Capgemini, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, IBM and Cisco Systems.

About Appear Networks: www.appearnetworks.com 

Appear Networks is a Swedish software provider dedicated to the needs of today’s mobile users: allowing easy access to any wireless application, across different networks, on multiple mobile devices.

Appear Provisioning Server is a software platform currently used by major operators to deploy value-added services in Workspots™. Workspots are wireless-enabled zones such as airports, subway stations, or conference venues, where visitors and local workers can discover and download new applications over-the-air, in one single click, using Appear Networks’ patented Click & Run™ software technology.

The "Click & Run"™ software technology enables any communicating mobile device to discover, load and run applications available locally in one simple click. Appear Networks’ technology is ideal for local mobile workers as well as for visitors to public hotspots. Appear Networks has successfully partnered with leading IT companies such as Cisco, Capgemini, Intel and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. Its current customers are large corporations such as RATP (French Subway), SNCF (French Railway), SL (Stockholm Public Transportation Authority), CGEA-Connex (Veolia Environment group), FMV (Swedish Defence), Sagem Defence & Security and European WLAN operators.

Press Contacts
Mia Falgard
Appear Networks
mia.falgard@appearnetworks.com
Tel: Tel: +46 8 545 91 370