Ann: Norwood Expands World Phone into Android Handset Market, page-3

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ASX ANNOUNCEMENT
1 December 2015
Norwood Expands Consumer Communication Platform into Android Handset Market – gains a quarter million new downloads during global launch window.
Highlights:
o Norwood’s consumer-focused communications platform, World Phone, successfully completes its 30 November staggered launch across global time zones onto the Google Play store and is now available for Android smartphone devices worldwide.
o Google Play has had more than one billion people use the store in a recent 30-day period.
o Android smartphone platform currently has over 1.4 billion monthly active users.
o Downloads across 3-day test market period and global launch window now exceed 250,000.
o The App has achieved favourable early user ratings on the Google Play Store, in the 4.2-4.3 range, comparable to Skype, Viber and Whatsapp user ratings.
o Available for download at the Google Play Store.
o Follows successful launch of World Phone on the Apple iTunes store in mid-July, where 1,000,000 downloads of the World Phone app were reached within 3½ months after launch.
o Existing internal digital marketing knowledge base built up from iOS launch to be immediately applied to Android market.
"Sharing Economy" telecommunications pioneer Norwood Systems Ltd ("Norwood" or "the Company") (ASX: NOR) is pleased to confirm that the Company’s award-winning World Phone application has successfully completed a staggered release through 30 November across all major markets and time zones globally on the Google Play store, and is now available for download onto compatible Android devices worldwide as planned. Norwood previously detailed the planned Android launch date on 22 October 2015.
World Phone enables users to connect easily with their contacts for roaming or long-distance calls using high-quality, low-cost local landline networks – making it easy and affordable to make international voice calls from a mobile device, anywhere around the globe. World Phone also allows users to "Be Local™" whilst travelling or communicating from overseas and effortlessly set up and subscribe for a nearby local number so that contacts can call users without the inconvenience and cost of dialling their international number.
Test market downloads and initial downloads across the launch window for Android have now exceeded 250,000 units. The Company is very encouraged by this early rate of uptake and has now commenced a digital marketing campaign for World Phone targeting the Android user base, run by Norwood’s in-house digital marketing team and utilising the extensive knowledge base built up from the successful iOS campaign.
Norwood intends to keep the Android and iOS versions of World Phone up to date with the same level of features, and as the immediately impending product enhancements are rolled out to iOS (including language localisation and free App-to-App calling) they will be implemented as soon as practicable into the Android version.
Norwood Systems CEO and Founder, Paul Ostergaard, commented:
"It is tremendously gratifying to see that Norwood’s World Phone consumer product is now addressing well over 90% of potential smartphone users worldwide. I am also very pleased to deliver on our commitment to launch our award-winning World Phone platform to the Android community on time, and to see such strong initial take-up and downloads throughout our global launch window.
"We’ve put a huge amount of commitment and energy into ensuring that our Android version of World Phone meets the high quality expectations we have set on iOS, whilst also respecting and meeting the user interface and look and feel expectations of the Android platform. We hope that Android users will love our App and look forward to delivering additional enhancements and features over time.
"To see a quarter million users around the world download our brand-new Android World Phone App, across a relatively brief global launch window, has highlighted an astonishing performance on the part of the entire Norwood team! The initial uptake has been well beyond our internal expectations, and I am very proud of this team’s achievements."
Norwood is due to release a fortnightly update on World Phone download and revenue numbers on Thursday 3 December. Given the proximity to the Android launch, and time lags in reporting, it is not expected that this report will yet show material inputs from the Android version. Download and revenue run-rate trends established in previous announcements for World Phone on iOS remain largely unchanged.
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