Press Release

Funambol launches The Synchronization Portal for Palm Powered Mobile Devices at PalmSource European Conference

Revolutionary data synchronization and application provisioning system enables Palm OS developers to create, test, deploy and support mobile applications

Munich, Germany, September 22nd, 2003 - At the PalmSource European Conference, Funambol today announced the Synchronization Portal for Palm Powered™ handhelds and smartphones. Available at www.funambol.com, the Funambol Synchronization Portal is a platform that enables developers to keep an application and its data seamlessly synchronized on the user's device.

The Synchronization Portal allows an entire new set of applications to be created for the Palm OS® platform: news delivery systems, multi-player gaming software, sales force automation tools and so on. Creating an application using remote data updates will now take days, instead of months. Palm OS applications requiring access to a local database on the device can now be developed knowing the device data will be kept up-to-date by the Funambol platform. Software resident on a device can also be auto-updated and kept current with patches and bug fixes, avoiding the developer's need to support multiple versions of their applications.

The activation of the service is a quick and easy process:

1. The developer provides the application and the data to the Portal (as an XML file stored on a remote server);
2. The end user subscribes to the application on the Portal;
3. Thanks to the Funambol Conduit, the software is automatically installed on the device with its latest data (converted to Palm OS pdb format);
4. At each subsequent HotSync®, any change in the source data is transferred to the user device;
5. At the same time, if the developer provides an upgraded version of the application to the Portal, it is automatically uploaded and installed on the user device.

Using the service, a developer can provide up-to-date information and the latest version of the application. Until now, a developer wishing to offer data updates would typically post the new information on a web site, hoping for the users to notice it and download the new content with a browser (and then manually install it on the device). The same issue occurs with application upgrades, often ending with users keeping old and sometimes buggy versions on their Palm Powered device.

"The Funambol Synchronization Portal opens a new era in Palm OS application development by offering our 275,000 Palm OS developers with a cost-efficient way to seamlessly synchronize data and update applications ", said Larry Berkin, director developer marketing, PalmSource. The Funambol Portal also adds incredible value to Palm Powered users by enabling them to maintain updated data and Palm OS applications on their devices."

About Funambol
Funambol offers a complete and unique solution, addressing all the aspects of the wireless synchronization market: data synchronization, application provisioning, and device management. Its flagship product, Funambol SyncPlatform, is based on an open source core and open protocols. Built on the synchronization standard SyncML, the SyncPlatform can be deployed both in Windows and Linux/Unix systems. Funambol also provides SyncConnectors to extract information from enterprise data sources, such as databases, mail servers and web services. The SyncPlatform can be deployed at the enterprise or mobile operator data center or it can be accessed through the Synchronization Portal as a service. Funambol is based in San Jose (CA, USA) with a development center in Milan (Italy). For more information, visit Funambol at www.funambol.com.