Tiger Telematics Update
London, 27th October 2005 - Gizmondo Europe Ltd., subsidiary of Jacksonville, Florida-based Tiger Telematics Inc (other OTC, TGTL) indicated today that it is on track with its move into the USA market, continued management commitment towards full compliance with regulatory SEC filings, and confirmed previous appointments of executives, solidifying the management team.
Although Tiger's stock price has come under some pressure in reaction to Gizmondo receiving adverse media regarding some of its former employees hitherto unknown past history that recently came to light, the company is far better positioned today than it was three weeks ago with the product launch, added management and the recent appointment of new independent board of directors. The Company's own review of matters is fully and properly disclosed in its current and upcoming regulatory filings. The Company's Board is now comprised of a majority of independent members to provide corporate governance and review. Michael Carrender CEO of Tiger Telematics, indicated, "We are pleased with the board in place to lead the company through its critical execution stage."
Appointments
As previously announced, Steve Carroll (Chief Technical Officer and technical creator of the Gizmondo) was appointed to the company as Managing Director. Carroll's appointment follows after 3 years as head of technical development for the Gizmondo in Europe, during a period of major expansion. For the past 2 years he has been CTO of Tiger Telematics Inc and will continue to hold a seat on the board of directors.
Carroll, MSc, was formerly Director of Korean high-volume manufacturer, Maxon. His team there was responsible for the products that enabled Vodafone to launch its Pay-As-You-Talk scheme in the UK, which led to sales of over two million units. He was also previously employed at GEC and Marconi, where his team won the Queen's Award for Technology for the development of the world's best-ever selling radio test set.
Carroll will be responsible for all Global territories, he will have responsibility for sales strategy and delivery, QA, localisation, manufacturing and distribution. He will work with the Tiger Telematics Inc Board to develop strategy and ensure that it is aligned across all territories.
Gizmondo also confirms two additional appointments reporting directly into Carroll.
Steven Law is appointed Chief Operating Officer, responsible for world wide operations and localisation infrastructure working in conjunction with the CEO and MD. This role is dealing with strategy and process. He will also be working with the manufacturing and distribution aspects of products. Working with the MD he will develop the infrastructure to manage operations effectively across all territories, including establishing a product delivery tracking system. Law has over 20-plus years experience in all aspects of the games and IT industry and delivering quality products to market.
David Levett, Chief Software Architect. Levett founded Altio in December 1999 following 20 years of creating and directing development of commercial software applications. Prior to founding Altio, David was Director of Innovation at Talus Solutions. There, he led initiatives to deliver dynamic pricing and revenue management solutions to leading e-commerce companies. Before that, he spent four years as managing director at Image and Signal Sciences (ISS), a company that provides software architecture and operational research consultancy.
Levett has a broad experience in the software industry including developing an image compression and transmission for Reuter's news photos, the speech recognition system in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, and dynamic ticket pricing systems used by both British Airways and Delta Airlines. He has also worked extensively in real-time systems, parallel and distributed computing, user interfaces, and XML.
Having carried out his PhD research in 'Multi-dimensional Multi-resolution Stochastic Optimization' , he also holds a bachelor's degree in Physics and Microcomputing from the University of Surrey, England.
Steve Carroll says: "Now that we have successfully launched in North America, we have put in place a strong management team with the necessary diverse skills to cover the wide range of activities associated with the product. Eight specific additional appointments have also been made."
Activity Update
The growth of video games as a mass market consumer activity is illustrated by the rapid growth of games played on mobile phones and other handheld devices. Overall activity levels remain strong. The company has successfully executed its launch in North America, with the Gizmondo, its games, and satellite navigation package, going on sale on Saturday 22nd October 2005 at selected retail locations and the official website at www.gizmondo.com where it stands on its own merit as the most feature-packed entertainment hardware available.
Global distribution
Gizmondo can also confirm it is finalizing new product distribution agreements with a leading company for Russia, and continues to move ahead with plans to launch in mainland Europe.
New applications
The Gizmondo is unique in the market. Positioned as lifestyle hardware, it delivers unrivalled features and entertainment specification. The satellite navigation software continues to boost retail demand, and the company will be increasing its sales team to cater for this.
Global release date for its email service was also announced earlier this month. This latest application expands the communication functionality of the device from text (SMS) and picture (MMS) messages to include a fully-fledged POP3 email service, giving users access to their inbox anywhere within tri-band GSM coverage.
The application is available for a one-time charge of $29.99 for those downloading the latest service pack update and can be configured for a wide range of POP3 email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and mail services from other popular OSPs.
Product pipeline
As promised, Gizmondo continues to increase its portfolio of games and other software applications. Teams in the US and Europe are working on the unique GPS, gyroscopic camera, and augmented reality features which differentiates the hardware from any other handheld.
The first GPS-enabled game to be launched will be Colors, which also uses the GPRS multi-player connectivity of the device.
Outlook
With a strong product pipeline and increasing distribution partnerships, Tiger Telematics pursues with confidence and a determination to continue to build shareholder value through anticipated future profitable growth.
Online purchasing has become such a pervasive influence in users' lives that Leadpile.com predicts that video games and handheld console online sales for the upcoming 2005 Holiday season will break all historic records and expects online sales in 2005 to at least double the 2004 season.
(ENDS)
For further information please contact:
Global Media:
James Beaven
Indigo Pearl
+44 208 964 454
US Media:
Bryan Lam
Kohnke Communications
(415) 777-4000
About Tiger Telematics and Gizmondo
Gizmondo USA Inc and Gizmondo Europe Ltd. are owned subsidiaries of Tiger Telematics Inc (TGTL) and is the maker of Gizmondo, a next-generation mobile entertainment device. Launched in the UK in 2005, the gaming device includes built-in music, video, messaging and picture functions and GPS.
Tiger Telematics is a designer, developer and marketer of mobile telematics systems and services that combine global GPS functions and voice recognition technology to locate and track vehicles and people down to street level in countries throughout the world. The systems are designed to operate on GPS and are currently being marketed to GSM current and potential subscribers, primarily by the company's United Kingdom based subsidiaries.
www.gizmondo.com
www.tigertelematics.com
'Gizmondo', 'Smart Adds', 'Gizmondo Games', and the 'Gizmondo' logos and devices are trademarks of Gizmondo Europe Limited. All rights reserved. All third party trademarks and/or copyright material are the property of their respective owners.
Except for historical matters contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect Tiger Telematics, Inc. and its subsidiary businesses and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ are Tiger Telematics Inc.'s operating history; competition; low barriers to entry; reliance on strategic relationships; rapid technological changes; inability to complete transactions on favourable terms; the schedule and sell-through for new software release; consumer demand for video game hardware and software; the timing of the introduction of new generation competitive hardware systems, pricing changes by key vendors for hardware and software and the timing of any such changes, and the adequacy of supplies of new software product and those risks discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC.
In light of the risks and uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements, these statements should not be regarded as a representation by Tiger Telematics, Inc. or any other person that the projected results, objectives or plans will be achieved. Tiger Telematics, Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise or update the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof