Release date 01/03/2006

Oxford Dictionaries Available On I-Mode

Enfour, Inc. joins O2 i-mode's growing number of content providers

O2 announced in December that it has partnered with Enfour, Inc to provide Oxford dictionary services to i-mode consumers in the UK. The partnership features the full Oxford Dictionary of English, the Oxford Thesaurus of English, pronunciation sound files and a variety of other services and will help Oxford University Press build a close relationship with increasingly mobile consumers. The site will offer mobile consumers access to Oxford dictionaries on O2's i-mode site for 75p per month. As an official partner, the Oxford Dictionary of English and related material will be available through i-mode's intuitive interface under Info and Directories.

The definitive English language resource for mobile phones featuring the complete Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) and Oxford Thesaurus of English. ODE is the most authoritative and comprehensive coverage of today's English, drawing on the largest language research programme in the world. It contains 355,000 words, phrases, and definitions, including over 3000 new words and senses, 78,000 scientific and technical words and senses, 12,000 encyclopaedic entries, 68,000 examples, and 500 usage notes.

At your fingertips you have access to spell checking, exact word definitions, and other word options through the extensive thesaurus. Test your word power with quiz games and the special crossword helper will help you with wordgames. You can also listen to the correct pronunciation of words via your phone handset. A personal English tutor in your pocket!

Ann Lawson, Senior Rights Manager (Electronic), Oxford University Press (UK) commented, "We are delighted to be working with O2 and Enfour on this new mobile service for the UK, which will further encourage the use of our authoritative and up-to-date texts on the move. As the UK leaders in dictionary and reference content, we are always looking to innovative ways of making our content available. We expect this to be a popular educational and support tool on the mobile phone."

Grahame Riddell, Head of i-mode Marketing for O2 UK said: "We are pleased to be working with Enfour to offer Oxford Dictionaries to our providers. Enfour has managed to capture the benefits of i-mode and joined the i-mode ecosystem to offer its users a compelling mobile experience. O2 wants to make developing mobile content as attractive and as easy for businesses as possible. With the arrival of i-mode, O2 will redress this balance and make the provision of mobile content in the UK easier and more cost effective. The building of a strong content community both on and off portal will be critical to the success of the services. Our research clearly shows that consumers are willing to look at and pay for mobile content, and expectations are tied closely to a user's experience of the Internet. The overriding point for consumers is that convenience is key."

This is just one of the innovative ways that Oxford is bringing its content to users around the world ...

For more information please contact Kate Farquhar-Thomson on 01865 353423 or email kate.farquhar-thomson@oup.com

Print Press Release