Starting in late November in most Gateway Country stores nationwide, consumers can experience first-hand the new Gateway Connected Touch Pad home Internet appliance featuring the new Instant AOL service. The stores also will debut the new Gateway Connected Music Player. Both can be linked within the Gateway Connected Home -- an easy-to-use system that connects PCs and other devices in the home at broadband speed to enable a host of new capabilities and make the Internet an even more central feature of consumers' daily lives.
The Gateway Connected Home brings a variety of new capabilities into the home, including:
-- Accessing the Internet from a variety of devices in addition to the
PC, extending the medium's convenience into every part of home life;
-- Taking advantage of a new customized, "instant-on" version of the AOL
service that connects the consumer to AOL as they turn on the device,
designed to be used with new appliances that can be located in parts of
the home where a PC typically is not;
-- Accessing family members' common calendars, address books and other
information across multiple devices;
-- Instantly accessing personalized information like news, investment
updates and weather forecasts from any room in the house;
-- Creating a centralized, digital music library that's accessible from
any room in the house through multiple devices.
Yesterday Gateway also announced a strategic relationship with Broadcom Corporation as a key enabler of its Gateway Connected Home system. Gateway already has begun shipping all Gateway Select and Performance consumer desktop PCs with Broadcom Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) 2.0 chipsets as standard equipment -- enabling customers to easily and seamlessly connect Gateway PCs and Gateway appliances via existing telephone lines in the home at broadband speed.
"People today are embracing a wave of new technology and devices that can do more than ever before. Many of these devices can now access the Internet, which has made them incredibly useful," said Jeff Weitzen, Gateway president and CEO. "Linking PCs and other devices to each other throughout the home adds a new level of convenience and usefulness. Gateway and its partners have made that possible, and we're delivering it to people in a way that's simple and appealing."
Gateway Connected Touch Pad with Instant AOL
The Gateway Connected Touch Pad featuring the Instant AOL service is a compact, easy-to-use touch-screen device offering instant-on access to all of AOL's hallmark features including e-mail, instant messaging, the My Calendar service and Address Book feature, chat and full Internet access. The Instant AOL service also puts at members' fingertips content that is particularly convenient for use in either the kitchen -- like information on home and family, recipes and shopping time savers for groceries and gifts -- or the family room, such as TV and movie listings and online music.
The Instant AOL service also offers key "Essentials" available at the touch of a button, including a family Notepad, access to Favorite Places, Search, the Buddy List(R) feature and more. Members also have access to AOL's 20 Channels including House & Home, Kids Only, Parenting and other Channels as well as AOL's comprehensive Parental Controls feature.
The Gateway Connected Touch Pad with Instant AOL is designed for use in high-traffic areas of the home -- such as the kitchen or family room -- where PCs typically are not located. The sleek Gateway Touch Pad, which can be set on a countertop or mounted beneath kitchen cabinets, can be operated using a stylus and touch screen and with a wireless keyboard that includes convenient shortcut icons to AOL e-mail, instant messages, Channels and more. For added convenience, the Gateway Connected Touch Pad features a Notepad where family members can leave messages for each other during the course of the day.
The Gateway Connected Touch Pad can be used with either a dial-up connection or, when networked with a PC, a broadband Internet connection. When linked with other devices in the Gateway Connected Home, it can take advantage of simultaneous Internet access from any room in the house.
Barry Schuler, president of AOL Interactive Services, said: "Gateway's vision of the Connected Home and our 'AOL Anywhere' strategy are based on a common realization that consumers are making the Internet more and more central to their daily lives, and that they want to access its convenience from more places, more frequently. The Gateway Connected Touch Pad with Instant AOL is an important step in meeting our shared commitment to help consumers create the next Internet revolution by making the services they rely on even more convenient than ever before."
The Gateway Connected Touch Pad's price is $599. Price plans for Instant AOL service will fit within standard AOL subscription packages. The Gateway Connected Touch Pad with Instant AOL service can be ordered starting Dec. 1 from Gateway Country stores, 1-800-Gateway or Gateway.com, for shipment by approximately Dec. 15 to the customer's home.
Key technological features of the Gateway Connected Touch Pad are its Transmeta Crusoe processor and Netscape's Gecko browsing engine. The appliance also operates on the innovative Mobile Linux operating system and Broadcom home networking silicon for improved reliability and lower cost.
Gateway Connected Music Player
The Gateway Connected Music Player allows family members to listen to music files in any room in the house from a common music library on a PC.
The Gateway Connected Music Player can be connected to the user's stereo system or, when paired with powered speakers, it can be used as a stand-alone audio player that's easily located in any room in the home. Users can create song playlists organized by title, artist, album or genre. The device also features a convenient remote control.
Like the Gateway Connected Touch Pad, the Gateway Connected Music Player utilizes Broadcom HomePNA 2.0 silicon for connecting to existing phone lines in the home, in addition to an Ethernet connection capability.
It can be ordered for $299 when offered for sale around Dec. 1 in Gateway Country stores, through 1-800-Gateway or on Gateway.com, for shipment by approximately Dec. 15 to the customer's home.
The Gateway Connected Home
As part of the Gateway Connected Home, these new products feature the ability to be linked to Gateway PCs and other devices in the home at broadband speed using existing telephone jacks. Gateway's new alliance with Broadcom -- the leader in broadband transmission of voice, audio, video and data over existing communications systems -- enables this key feature and creates a simple and powerful framework into which additional devices can be integrated.
The Gateway Connected Home will meet a growing consumer demand for Internet ubiquity in the home. In the recently released AOL/Roper Starch Cyberstudy 2000, more than 60 percent of online consumers said they believe that every room in their house will be wired to the Internet within 10 years.
Gateway Country Stores
Making these new products and services easy to evaluate, buy and enjoy is the unique role of Gateway Country stores. Starting next week, most Gateway Country stores are providing a customer-friendly buying experience with a comprehensive demonstration of the Connected Home's capabilities. Gateway Country stores recently underwent a multi-million dollar retrofit to include comprehensive Connected Home demonstration areas.
When shipment of the new Gateway appliances begins in mid-December, Gateway Country stores will be available to provide expert set-up, user-focused training and comprehensive support.
Gateway Country stores make it easy for people to get more use -- and less frustration -- out of technology. Gateway Country stores recently were cited by readers of PC World as their favorite place to buy technology products.
The Connected Home in 2001 and Beyond
In 2001, Gateway plans to introduce new appliances compatible with the Gateway Connected Home system as well as Broadcom-enabled adapters that allow stereos, TVs and other traditional consumer electronics to benefit from connectivity. In the future the Gateway-Broadcom alliance also plans to enable customers to watch digital-quality movies on any TV in their homes from a common video library. Gateway and Broadcom also plan to introduce Internet telephony which enables telephone calls from anywhere in the home, plus other features and benefits now in development. Consumers will be able to give each phone in their home a unique Internet address, which allows phone-to-phone intercom capabilities within the Gateway Connected Home -- all using a single phone line.
Additional Gateway appliances now in development also incorporate Instant AOL, Transmeta Crusoe processors, the Netscape Gecko browser and Broadcom connectivity features. In 2001 Gateway will introduce a wireless web pad appliance affording instant Internet access from anywhere in the home.
About Gateway
Gateway (NYSE: GTW), a Fortune 250 company founded in 1985, focuses on building lifelong relationships with consumers and businesses through complete technology personalization. Gateway ranked number one in U.S. consumer PC revenue in 1999 (1) and was rated among the top ten best corporate reputations in America according to a survey conducted in August of 1999 by Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute and published in The Wall Street Journal. In 1999, Gateway was seventh in total return to shareholders among Fortune 500 companies and tenth in total shareholder returns over the past five years. (2) Gateway employees worldwide provide clients with services and built-to-order computers that consistently win top awards from leading industry publications. Gateway had total global revenue of $8.65 billion in 1999. For more information, visit our Web site at www.gateway.com.
(1) According to GartnerGroup/Dataquest US PC Quarterly statistics.
(2) According to Fortune Magazine, April 17, 2000.
About America Online, Inc.
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc. is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
About Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom Corporation is the leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, video, and data. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, the company designs, develops and supplies integrated circuits for a number of the most significant broadband communications markets, including the markets for cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed local, metropolitan and wide area networks, home networking, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), carrier access, residential broadband gateways, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, optical networking, digital subscriber lines (xDSL) and wireless communications. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and can be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.
About Transmeta Corporation
Founded in 1995, Transmeta is a public company based in Santa Clara, California. Transmeta develops, in concert with its OEM customers, platform solutions for the Mobile Internet Computing market. Transmeta markets and sells the Crusoe processor solution as the engine for a new class of computers.
Crusoe is built to run the large installed base of PC software applications with high performance and longer battery life.
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