BlackBox Component Builder becomes available as Free Software

Zuerich, June 23, 2004

Dear BlackBox user,

we have good news for you if you consider to increase the use of BlackBox in your organization. Starting today, the BlackBox Component Builder 1.4 software is available as a free download from our Web site at “www.oberon.ch/blackbox.html”. As you probably know, we shifted our business model from a product focus to a service focus several years ago – product licenses make up for only a small part of our revenues. We have now refined our strategy based on your input (mailing list survey, Oberon Day @ CERN, interviews with customers and potential customers). As a result, our board decided to further emphasize the service focus by making BlackBox freely available. For many organizations, this considerably lowers the barriers for procurement of the software. Hopefully this will help increase the use of BlackBox on the one hand, and indirectly further our service business on the other hand.

Apart from BlackBox-related services, we will focus our service offerings on custom software for mobile solutions, using devices such as PDAs, Smartphones, Tablet PCs, etc. Apart from BlackBox, we will focus on the mobile platforms of Microsoft (Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC / Smartphone, .NET Compact Framework).

To further increase the potential use of BlackBox, we additionally plan to release BlackBox under an open source license to the public. We will nail down the details (license, scope, etc.) in the coming months and make an announcement around the end of the year.

For the free download of BlackBox, please visit “www.oberon.ch/blackbox.html”, the new dedicated entry point for BlackBox on our Web site.

With best regards,
your Oberon microsystems crew