
Monday July
12
Press Release
Source: Audible, Inc.
Audible Releases First
Audible Ready Developer Platform
Software Development Kit Builds Upon Broad Industry
Acceptance of Audible's Spoken Word Delivery
and Mobile Device Playback Standard
WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--July 12, 2004-- Audible, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBL
- News),the leading provider of digitally delivered
spoken word audio, today made the AudibleReady
Client SDK Version 1.0 available for license
to third-party developers. The Software Development
Kit (SDK) will enable original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) of mobile audio devices, as well as Audible's
original design manufacturer (ODM) and integrated
circuit vendor (ICV) partners to simply and
rapidly adopt Audible's technology for seamless
download, transfer, and playback of the more
than 50,000 hours of spoken word audio programming
available for download at Audible.com®.
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AudibleReady® platform components have already
been adopted by partners who manufacture or
provide components for more than 100 MP3 players,
PDAs, or "smart" wireless telephone
models. Current AudibleReady platform partners
include Apple Corp., Sony Electronics, Creative
Labs, Rio Audio, PalmOne Inc, Microsoft Corporation,
Hewlett Packard Company, Gateway, Inc., and,
with the announcement on Thursday, July 8, Audible
welcomed Samsung Electronics to the family of
platform partners who have adopted components
of Audible's SDK.
"The release
of the first AudibleReady Client SDK represents
an important step forward for Audible's platform,
partnership, and growth strategies," stated
Guy A. Story, Chief Scientist, Audible Inc.
"After nearly nine years of development
and seven years of ongoing refinement in the
marketplace, the AudibleReady standard for the
end-to-end packaging, secure delivery, and playback
of spoken word content by portable devices has
achieved broad industry adoption. We consider
this SDK release to be an important element
of the continued adoption of our spoken word
platform standard for mobile devices, and the
first step in our intention to selectively license
additional elements of our platform to our business
partners."
"Samsung has
decided to adopt the AudibleReady platform in
a number of our handheld digital audio devices,"
said Simon Chang, Director of Samsung's yepp
Marketing Team. "Last Thursday's announcement
of AudibleReady Yepp and Napster MP3 players
signals the first of many Samsung devices that
will ship with Audible technology."
"VoiceAge is
excited to support this initiative by providing
to the first AudibleReady SDK our ACELP®.net
codec, proven over the years to be the best
choice for low bit rate narrowband and wideband
technology for Internet content," added
Laurent Amar, President of VoiceAge Corp. "Working
with partners like Audible facilitates the wide
dissemination of ACELP®.net to listeners
who care about audio quality."
The AudibleReady
Client SDK enables Audible's partners to support
the Company's Internet audio service in current
and future audio devices and multimedia platforms
with a minimum of development. Some of the key
elements of the AudibleReady SDK program include:
Support for secure
playback of audio content, in Audible's proprietary
format and DRM, with the full complement of
AudibleReady spoken word user experience features.
Secure access technologies that allow automated
downloads of audio directly to devices and personal
computers.
Integrated support for ACELP®.net speech
compression from VoiceAge Corporation.
To join the developer program, a partner need
only contact Audible and sign an AudibleReady
Client Developer license. The developer partner
then receives the SDK for integration into the
relevant device or system. Audible provides
technical support to licensees. The fee-free
license contains marketing obligations to insure
that the subsequent Audible support will result
in new consumer customers for Audible's service.
As part of the program, Audible will certify
each complete and successful implementation
as "AudibleReady."
Over the next few
weeks Audible will make available the AudibleReady
Client SDK for a variety of platforms and processors,
including Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Philips processors,
Texas Instruments OMAP and DSP, ARM-based processors,
and others.
About Audible,
Inc.
Audible® (www.audible.com®) is the Internet's
leading premium spoken audio source. Content
from Audible is downloaded and played back on
personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady®
computer-based mobile devices. Audible has 50,000
hours of audio programs from more than 165 content
partners that include leading audiobook publishers,
broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper
publishers, and business information providers.
Audible.com is Amazon.com's
and the Apple iTunes Music Store's pre-eminent
provider of spoken word products for downloading
or streaming via the Web. Additionally, the
Company is strategically aligned with Random
House, Inc. in the first-ever imprint to produce
spoken word content specifically suited for
digital distribution, Random House Audible.
Among the Company's key business relationships
are Apple Corp., Creative Labs, Gateway, Inc.,
Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation,
palmOne, Inc., PhatNoise Inc., RealNetworks,
Inc., Rio Audio, Roxio, Inc., Sony Electronics,
Texas Instruments Inc., and VoiceAge Corporation.
Audible, www.audible.com,
AudibleListener, and AudibleReady are registered
trademarks of Audible, Inc. and all are part
of the family of Audible, Inc. trademarks.
Other product or
service names mentioned herein are the trademarks
of their respective owners.
This press release
contains information about Audible, Inc. that
is not historical fact and may be deemed to
contain forward-looking statements about the
company. Actual results may differ materially
from those anticipated in any forward-looking
statements as a result of certain risks and
uncertainties, including, without limitation,
Audible's limited operating history, history
of losses, uncertain market for its services,
and its inability to license or produce compelling
audio content and other risks and uncertainties
detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange
Commission filings.
Contact:
Audible, Inc.
Jonathan Korzen, 973-837-2718
jkorzen@audible.com