Microsoft and Openwave Team Up to Offer MSN Mobile Services

CANNES, France, Feb. 24, 2004 — Openwave Systems Inc., a leading provider of open software products and services for the communications industry, and MSN, a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers, today announced an agreement to bring MSN® Mobile services to mobile operators and handset vendors worldwide. In an effort to mobilize MSN customers worldwide, the companies have built and are including MSN Mobile software in the Openwave® Phone Suite V7 phone software platform. With the solution, handset manufacturers will be able to rapidly add MSN Mobile software — including MSN Hotmail®
and MSN Messenger — to their V7 device portfolio, and mobile operators now will have the ability to deliver these leading communications services to their subscribers.

“Openwave is working with mobile operators worldwide to help them perfect the user experience for data services and launch new applications that create viral adoption and drive revenue growth,” said Don Listwin, president and CEO of Openwave. “One of the most powerful applications is the seamless extension of online services to mobile users. Our collaboration with MSN is an important example of how we are helping operators deliver differentiated services.”

“The MSN vision is to bring consumers anytime, anyplace access to the people and information that matter most; MSN Mobile plays a critical role here as we work to make this vision a reality,” said Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president of MSN Communications Platforms. “MSN is thrilled to work with Openwave and, ultimately, mobile operators to bring leading MSN communications services to a broad range of wireless users. With Openwave’s rich V7 platform and broad applicability to mass market phones, and rich MSN communications services and loyal customers, we believe we can provide a great opportunity for mobile operators to drive more wireless data usage.”

Openwave’s phone software is currently shipping in half a billion phones and supports more than 600 phone platforms. Openwave V7 is a standards-based middleware platform and modular suite of phone applications designed to drive mobile data usage by providing a common user experience across services. It enables operators and phone manufacturers to rapidly integrate popular applications; cost-effectively add new phone functionality and third-party applications; and deliver customized, differentiated services and phones.

Mobile operators that select MSN Mobile services on V7 could reach a share of the MSN customer base, which includes 145 million MSN Hotmail customers and 110 million MSN Messenger customers worldwide. MSN Mobile for V7 brings MSN services to life wirelessly virtually anywhere with a user interface that is rich, intuitive and familiar for consumers used to accessing these services from their PC including these:

  • MSN Hotmail. MSN Hotmail for MSN Mobile enables consumers to access their inbox online and offline; include text, images or sound in their e-mail messages; and receive personalized alerts for designated e-mail messages.

  • MSN Messenger. MSN Messenger for MSN Mobile enables consumers to stay visible online to their contacts, be alerted when their contacts want to communicate via instant messaging, and carry on simultaneous or multiparty* conversations at one time.

About Openwave

Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV) is the leading independent provider of open software products and services for the communications industry. Openwave’s breadth of products, including mobile phone software, multimedia messaging software (MMS), e-mail, location and mobile gateways, along with its worldwide expertise enable its customers to deliver innovative and differentiated data services. Openwave is a global company headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. For more information, please visit http://www.openwave.com/ .

About MSN

MSN attracts more than 350 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 38 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and ad sales to businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .

About MSN Mobile

MSN Mobile extends the MSN experience customers are familiar with to mobile devices, providing a convenient way to stay in touch with the people and information that matter most. MSN Mobile will deliver a range of experiences and solutions worldwide, including broad SMS and WAP services, rich client solutions with partners such as Openwave, and advanced experiences with Pocket MSN on Windows Mobile (TM) -based devices.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

* The exact number of multiparty conversations depends on the given network provider.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements relating to expectations, plans or prospects for Openwave Systems Inc. that are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of Openwave’s management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In particular, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: (a) the ability to make changes in business strategy, development plans and product offerings to respond to the needs of our current, new and potential customers, suppliers and strategic partners; (b) risks associated with the development and licensing of software generally, including potential delays in software development and technical difficulties that may be encountered in the development or use of our software; (c) the ability to successfully partner with other companies; and (d) technological changes and developments.

For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the risk factors discussed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including but not limited to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, and subsequently filed reports. All documents also are available through the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system (EDGAR) at http://www.sec.gov/ or from Openwave’s Web site at http://www.openwave.com/ . The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this document.

Microsoft, MSN, Hotmail and Windows Mobile are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Openwave and the Openwave logo are trademarks of Openwave Systems Inc.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp .

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