SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Jan 15, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

New Release Increases Scalability, Reliability, and Location-Sensitivity for Wireless Carriers While Improving Time to Market for Application Developers

Autodesk Location Services, a division of Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADSK), today announced availability of the second major release of Autodesk(R) LocationLogic, the leading development platform for location-based services (LBS). Autodesk Location Services offers wireless operators and enterprises a comprehensive solution for location-based services, including the LocationLogic application development platform, a suite of applications built on LocationLogic, and content integration and management tools. Autodesk Location Services draws on Autodesk's experience as a leading provider of Geographic Information Systems as well as its global presence and expertise in building world-class developer networks.

Autodesk LocationLogic was designed to help carriers react quickly and competitively to market conditions by enabling the rapid development and deployment of location-based applications. LocationLogic accomplishes this task by integrating, managing, and aggregating all information relevant to a user's location and preferences and making that information useful for real-life applications, such as "Find me the Nearest ..." or "Provide the fastest route ...". It boasts an easy-to-use, standards-based application programming interface (API) and can scale to handle large volumes of real-time transactions per second. Of further advantage to carriers is LocationLogic's ease of integration with existing IT systems.

"Carriers are faced with the challenge of identifying new wireless data services for their subscribers," said Eli Rosner, chief technology officer, Autodesk Location Services. "We believe that adding location sensitivity to these services is the key differentiator that will encourage adoption and drive revenue. With LocationLogic, Autodesk Location Services offers carriers a high level of software expertise and assurance in bringing market-ready location-based services to customers quickly and reliably."

Unlike many competing solutions that require the carrier to piece together the various components of a full wireless data services solution, Autodesk LocationLogic provides a common framework for administrative, maintenance, provisioning, billing, and user profile services for all of the applications and databases used by the LocationLogic platform -- all within a highly secure environment.

Further, in response to carriers' varied stages of wireless data services implementations, Autodesk Location Services products can be delivered as complete, ready-to-deploy services, integrated into existing infrastructures or augmented with proprietary systems to create unique, value-added, location-sensitive solutions for enterprise and consumer markets.

    Benefits for Application Developers

By focusing its efforts on creating a flexible, scalable, and extensible platform that provides core administrative and location functions, Autodesk Location Services allows independent software vendors to focus on their core strength: rapidly creating innovative location-based applications.

The open, adaptable, and scalable architecture is designed for easy integration of LocationLogic into existing systems using a wide variety of fully documented Java, XML, and SOAP APIs. System operators or third-party vendors can easily develop or adapt applications and content databases for integration with Autodesk LocationLogic by using the platform's comprehensive development environment.

Application developers minimize time to deployment by developing applications with LocationLogic's Java API, which can be combined with other technologies like XML in standard web application development environments. LocationLogic provides an easy interface to core location services (for example, spatial query, geocoding, routing, and mapping) and location determination technology. LocationLogic easily interfaces with external databases and legacy systems, speeding integration with existing IT and wireless portal infrastructures.

    About Autodesk Location Services

Autodesk Location Services (www.autodesk.com/locationservices), a division of Autodesk, Inc., provides information-mobility solutions to carriers and enterprises worldwide. The Autodesk LocationLogic platform and applications bring personalized, localized, and actionable wireless data services to wired, mobile, and wireless environments. Founded in 1982, Autodesk is the world's leading design and digital media creation, management, and distribution company. The company serves a diverse portfolio of industries, including building design, manufacturing, geographical information systems, and digital film and video. Autodesk is one of the largest global software companies, with annual revenues of $936 million. For more information about the company, see www.autodesk.com.

Note to Editors: Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

CONTACT:          Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael
                  Tara Cooper, 415/507-5638
                  tara.cooper@autodesk.com
                  or
                  Erica Rodriguez Pompen, 31 20 531 3735 
                  erodriguez@appliedcom.com

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