News release

Compaq Continues Growth in Worldwide SMB Market With Enhanced Product Offerings for Small and Medium Businesses

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) continues to strengthen its presence in the worldwide small and medium business (SMB) market with increased global product shipments to SMBs and enriched product offerings.

"The fast-paced success we're seeing in the global SMB marketplace can be attributed to a concerted focus by Compaq to fulfill the technology needs of small and medium businesses," said Mike Mata, vice president of Worldwide Sales and Partnerships for Compaq. "It's also the result of our customer-friendly hybrid distribution model, and worldwide dissemination of best business practices, both of which have afforded Compaq such tremendous growth in the North America region."

According to the March IDC PC Tracker report, Compaq's worldwide SMB PC unit volume increased 24 percent in fourth quarter 2001, growing Compaq market share by more than one percentage point. In addition, North America SMB market share grew by nearly two points year over year to 11.1 percent—making Compaq the second largest PC OEM in the North America SMB marketplace.

"We use Compaq technology for everything from design and sales to inventory control, which helps keep my costs 20 to 25 percent lower than my competitors'," said David Smith, president of Are Your Organized?, a retail store and online business in Brookfield, Conn., that designs and installs organizational systems for closets, garages and other areas in homes and businesses. "Compaq products are affordable and offer superior tech support. When I buy any system, support is important to me because we try out a lot of new software. When there's a problem, I find that Compaq support on the Web and by phone is great."

Compaq is committed to providing SMB customers with the latest technologies to help simplify and grow their businesses from access devices such as desktops and workstations to back-end computing with industry-standard servers. For example, the Compaq Evo Desktop D300v, a cost-efficient PC for essential business computing, is now available with an Intel® Celeron™ 1.3 GHz processor, 128 MB SDRAM, 20 GB hard drive, CD-ROM, and Microsoft® Windows® XP Home edition for just $499. The same system is priced at $656 with the addition of a 15-inch monitor.

For SMB customers who need a full-featured notebook with excellent performance, Compaq introduces the Evo Notebook N115. It combines ease-of-use, functionality, and value in an all-in-one three-spindle design.

The Evo Notebook N115 features the latest AMD Mobile Athlon™ 1500+, Athlon 4 and Duron™ processors with PowerNow! Technology; a crisp, bright 13.3" or 14.1" TFT XGA display; integrated 56K v.92 modem and 10/100 Ethernet; and Windows XP Professional or XP Home pre-installed. Pricing starts at only $999.

For cost-conscious small and medium businesses that require more advanced computing power for financial, CAD/CAM and digital content creation applications, Compaq offers the affordable Evo Workstation W4000, available this month with the new Intel Pentium® 4 2.4 GHz processor, 80 GB hard drive and 256 MB DDR memory, for just $1799.

Compaq also brings end-to-end solutions to SMB customers with three enhanced industry-standard Compaq ProLiant servers. Next generation ProLiant ML330, ML350 and ML370 servers are ideally suited to meet the needs of SMB customers who require affordable products that offer easy setup and use, high availability, reliable data protection and remote management capabilities to minimize IT management requirements and maximize IT investments. Compaq recently introduced its latest ProLiant ML330 server now available with an Intel Pentium III 1.26 GHz processor with 40GB ATA storage starting at $1222.

In addition, Compaq offers 24/7 award-winning customer service with contracted four-hour response times through its extended warranty CarePaq service for both the Evo Workstation W4000 and the ProLiant ML330 server to keep business-critical data and applications running securely.

For more information about these products, as well as additional SMB products from Compaq, visit www.smb.compaq.com or call 1-800-888-9909.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a leading global provider of information technology products, services, and solutions for enterprise customers. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures, and markets information technology equipment, software, services, and solutions, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, personal desktop and notebook computers, and personal entertainment and Internet access devices sold in more than 200 countries directly and through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at: http://www.compaq.com.