News release

HP No. 1 in Worldwide Total Disk Storage and External Disk Storage Systems for Seven Consecutive Quarters

HP extends market lead in open storage area networks, delivers industry's strongest sequential quarterly growth in network attached storage market

HP today announced that it continued its No. 1 position for worldwide disk storage systems factory revenue for the seventh consecutive quarter, according to market data released today by IDC.(1)

IDC also reported that in worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenue, which posted its largest quarterly growth in more than two years, HP is once again the market leader with 21.7 percent revenue share for the fourth quarter.

Additional key highlights:

• HP was the worldwide leader in total disk storage systems for 2003 with 26.3 percent revenue share.



• In the fast growing open storage area network (SAN) market, HP continued its No. 1 position for the sixth consecutive quarter with 30.9 percent revenue share, extending its lead over the nearest competitor to 4.8 points of share.



• HP showed the highest sequential revenue growth of any network attached storage (NAS) vendor for the fourth quarter with growth of 49 percent on the strength of its Windows®-based NAS devices.

"Our continued overall disk storage systems market leadership and significant growth in Open SANs and NAS can be attributed to our strategic focus on these rapidly expanding segments of the storage market," said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, Network Storage Solutions, HP. "HP, in concert with our partners, is delivering what customers require - open, modular network storage.

"Customers continue to turn to HP and our powerful StorageWorks portfolio and industry-standard servers for solutions that work better together, simplify IT management and are backed by HP's world-class services and support expertise."

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the last four fiscal quarters, HP revenue totaled $74.7 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) IDC, "Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker," March 2004.

Windows is a U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003, and reports filed after the form 10-K. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.