Wireless is the next big wave in providing information and services to users via the Internet, and market demand is expected to be bigger and faster than anything weve seen before said Jos Dikhoff, VP of Sales and Marketing for SEAGULLs EMEA and Asia Pacific operations. And as market penetration of WAP devices and their services grows, the demand to provide access to host application functions and information will be tremendous. SEAGULL offers a complete solution that can be quickly implemented.

The wireless movement lets users easily connect to the Internet via their mobile phones or PDAs and perform a variety of tasks like checking stock prices and reading news headlines. SEAGULL believes that the need will quickly emerge for companies to provide real-time wireless connections to their own core business
applications; offering self-service capabilities such as letting a car-dealer look up
inventory from the showroom floor, letting an insurance agent check the status of a claim from a disaster site, providing account information to a field salesperson or letting him/her track the status of an order from their car. SEAGULL allows businesses to implement this wireless-to-host access rapidly and reliably.

Expectations are that 100 million mobile devices will be WAP-enabled by 2003. WAP is supported by Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERICY), Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS), Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and many other leading mobile telephone vendors. WAP is also supported by 3COM (NASDAQ: COMS) for the Palm product line, and by other leading PDA vendors.

SEAGULL plans to pursue alliances with consulting firms and other technology companies in Europe and the United States in order to exploit the opportunities in the wireless-to-host market.

SEAGULL provides wireless-to-host connectivity through the Java Host Session Connector and the J Walk and WinJa product lines which are used to e-business-enable host application assets. Java Host Session Connector is the first commercially available deliverable resulting from the companys Williamsburg research and development activities in its Irvine, California and Swords, Ireland labs. Announced in April, 1999, Williamsburg is the project code name for new software that will automate the creation of XML and Java interfaces for S/390 and AS/400 applications, enabling companies to integrate their core business systems with Web sites, portals, electronic communities, etc. The Williamsburg products, not yet named, are scheduled for availability in Spring, 2000.

Non-Invasive

SEAGULLs host-to-wireless solution allows businesses to quickly make host-based information and processes accessible via Web-ready wireless devices. Its really important to note that this solution is non-invasive, requiring no changes to the host application code. This brings major speed-to-market and reliability benefits, said Andre den Haan, SEAGULL VP of Product Strategy. Non-invasiveness is a feature of all SEAGULL application enhancement products, and will also be a feature of the Williamsburg products.

Available Now

The technology is available for customers to use right now, Mr. den Haan continued. SEAGULL is demonstrating inter-continental connections between a host computer; a server; and Nokia and Sprint PCS telephone devices, and Palm PDA devices among locations in the United States and Europe. In a related story today, SEAGULL announced that MEXX, one of Europes leading fashion brands, has already selected its wireless-to-host solution.

SEAGULL provides industry-leading developers tools, specialized server software and thin client viewer technology to help organizations implement rapid e-business innovation in direct response to market needs.

The companys strategic products include J Walk (for the AS/400) and WinJa (for the mainframe), complete development and deployment solutions for taking host applications to the Web for e-business, integrating with other applications, and reengineering application workflow. Other products offered by SEAGULL include GUI/400, software for integrating AS/400 applications with client/server architectures and the Web through extensible Windows graphical thin clients; and TTT, a tool for translating AS/400 and mainframe applications into foreign languages.

SEAGULL is headquartered in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, with Americas headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The company was established in 1990 and has direct operations in the United States, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, as well as 30 distributors supporting its operations in 50 countries. SEAGULL is publicly traded on the Amsterdam Exchange under the symbol SEAGULL.