iAnywhere Solutions, the mobile and wireless subsidiary of Sybase, has announced that consumer electronics company Casio Computer has invested $5 million in the company's convertible preferred stock.
Casio's investment will allow iAnywhere Solutions to extend its mobile and wireless application development efforts to drive the market for m-business solutions.
The announcement underscores an already strong strategic relationship between the companies focused on enabling solutions for iAnywhere's m-business platform and Casio's Windows CE-business handheld devices.
"Casio's investment in iAnywhere Solutions is a significant milestone in Sybase's ongoing strategy to team with industry leaders and boost our presence in high-growth markets, such as mobile and wireless computing, e-business portals and vertical solutions," says Sybase SA marketing manager, Julie Tomlinson. "Both companies will have further opportunities to grow market share as we work towards enabling mobile solutions for corporate clients."
Casio has made aggressive efforts to expand its mobile network solutions business by developing devices with competitive features and pursuing strategic alliances with key industry players.
"Last year, Casio formed a global strategic alliance with iAnywhere," says Wally Solomon, MD of James Ralph, the local Casio representative. "The investment further solidifies this relationship and strengthens our position in the mobile and wireless markets. Locally, Casio can now offer complete enterprise solutions for sales force automation, customer relationship management, and mobile computing where our PDAs can interface with a variety of corporate databases."
Solomon adds that the iAnywhere initiative will allow Casio to provide robust mobile database applications for a wide variety of mobile devices. Working in partnership with iAnywhere Solutions, Casio will have the ability to provide customers with secure, wireless connectivity and mobile applications that will improve mobile productivity for both large and small companies.
The companies already enjoy a successful relationship in jointly marketing and delivering m-business solutions worldwide, targeting markets such as financial services, healthcare, sales force automation and field force automation.
Casio embeds iAnywhere's mobile database and enterprise synchronisation technology, SQL Anywhere Studio, on its business handheld devices such as the Cassiopeia EG-800 and IT-70/IT-700.
iAnywhere Solutions is developing applications targeting Casio devices based on iAnywhere m-Business Studio, a comprehensive, integrated software package for extending the reach of e-business applications, enterprise data and Internet content to mobile and wireless devices.
"We are working with several independent software developers and the relationship with iAnywhere allows us to offer them a powerful development environment," adds Solomon. "The combination of iAnywhere Solutions' mobile and wireless technology with the Cassiopeia handheld devices provides an ideal platform to power a variety of applications, from equipment maintenance to field force automation."
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