4 September 2000 PRESS RELEASE

Diwan Launches First Arabic WAP Publishing System

Diwan Software Limited, one of the longest established innovators in the Arabic software industry, are pleased to announce the launch of the first system able to publish to any WAP enabled mobile phone in Arabic.

With an installed base of more than 12 million units, the Wireless Access Protocol or WAP is fast becoming the new standard for internet access in mobile phones and other small devices. Diwan's WAP publisher allows any of these devices to be used, for the first time, with Arabic text.

The Diwan WAP publisher will publish Arabic text as images to any WAP device that does not have built-in Arabic support. The publisher is intelligent enough to automatically adjust for size of display and memory limitations giving the best possible results for a wide variety of devices. The font used for Arabic text is the same font licensed to Siemens for their S35i mobile phones and has been especially designed to be clear and readable on the small displays in mobile phones.

Also available for separate licensing, the Diwan WAP publisher comes as a component of Diwan's revolutionary NIS system. NIS allows simultaneous publishing to several different media - HTML web pages, WAP phones and print - as well as integrating editorial management and archiving.

A demonstration of Diwan's WAP publisher can be accessed by anyone with a WAP browser at the following address: http://nis.diwan.com/i.wml

More information on Diwan's NIS system can be found on the main Diwan web site at: http://www.diwan.com.

Adil Allawi, Technical director of Diwan Software adds: "Technology in this field is moving very fast and Diwan are actively working to bring leading edge technology to the Arabic user. Our WAP publisher represents the first generation of software from Diwan that will enable all Arabic speaking people to communicate more easily. Our WAP publisher is not only of use to information publishers but can also form the basis of a new generation of services to the Arabic mobile phone user."

Based in London, England and Dubai Internet City, UAE, Diwan Software Limited has pioneered the use of Arabic on the computer. Throughout its 15 year history Diwan has always supplied the highest quality computer software for the Arabic language and text. Diwan was the main consultant to Apple Computer for the Arabic Macintosh and has gone on to produce the high end Desktop Publishing application al-Nashir al-Sahafi. Diwan has one of the largest libraries of quality Arabic typefaces including the Mishafi font which has recently received a prestigious Award of Excellence from the Type Directors Club.

Press Contact:

Adil Allawi

Technical Director
Diwan Software Ltd
37-39 Peckham Road
London SE5 8UH,UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 2525 333
Fax: +44 (0)20 7 2525 444
email: info@diwan.com