Apple Sells 1.2 Million Copies of Mac OS 8; Best Software Product Sales Ever in First Two Weeks of Availability

Channel Sells-Out Initial Quantities of Milestone Macintosh Operating System Software Release; Hardware Sales Increase As Well

CUPERTINO, Calif.--August 8, 1997--Apple Computer, Inc. today announced that more than 1.2 million copies of Mac® OS 8 have been sold since the product's retail introduction on July 26, quadrupling the Company's expectations. News of the successful sales figures were revealed by Apple® director and co-founder, Steve Jobs, in a keynote address delivered this week at Macworld Expo in Boston.

Mac OS 8 is the latest operating system software release for the Macintosh® and Mac OS compatible systems--and the most significant upgrade since 1984. Several major retailers, distributors and catalog sales companies have sold out of their Mac OS 8 stock during the first two weeks of availability --resulting in the most successful sales performance ever for an Apple software product. Sales continue to surpass Apple's projections with the channel reporting strong demand and ordering substantial additional units. Apple hardware sales have also benefited from Mac OS 8's availability with dealers in certain locations reporting a more than 30 percent increase over the introductory weekend.

Apple's wholly owned subsidiary, Claris Corporation, a leading vendor of cross-platform software for business, education, and home, is responsible for retail sales and distribution of Apple software products.

"The retail excitement around Mac OS 8 is outstanding and beyond our most optimistic plans," said Stuart Illian, director of Apple Software Marketing at Claris. "We're seeing strong demand from the entire range of Mac users, including home users, and the appeal of Mac OS 8 is propelling strong retail traffic for Mac hardware and software to high levels."

"We are extremely pleased with sales to date for Mac OS 8 and feel they reflect the significance of the product to Macintosh customers," said Guerrino De Luca, executive vice president of Marketing, Apple Computer, Inc. "Mac OS 8 is a major system software upgrade that gives users a dramatically improved user experience, best of class Internet integration, a faster, multi-threaded PowerPC-native Finder, and industry leading multimedia technologies--all with classic Macintosh ease of use. Sales have significantly surpassed all our expectations and we expect the trend to continue."

About Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 includes a multitude of new features and technologies to offer customers an improved user experience with increased productivity and efficiency, greatly simplified Internet access, and leading-edge tools, state-of-the-art multimedia capabilities, and enhanced performance and stability.

For greater productivity and efficiency, Mac OS 8 features a multi-threaded, PowerPC processor-native Finder, enabling faster operations and multi-tasking such as copying files while simultaneously performing other operations. Adding to Mac OS 8's improved user experience are unique spring-loaded folders which open when a file is dragged on top of them; pop-up windows that allow folders, hard drives or network volumes to be moved to the bottom of the screen in the form of a tab which can then be opened with a single click; and contextual menus which give a list of actions that apply to a selected icon, window or text when it is clicked while holding down the control key.

An Internet Set Up Assistant enables users to access the Internet more quickly and easily than ever before and some of the industry's best browsing and communications tools such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01, Netscape Navigator 3.01, Claris Emailer Lite, and America Online 3.0 are included with Mac OS 8. Popular "push" technologies including The PointCast Network and Marimba's Castanet Tuner are also integrated. As a starting point for Internet exploration, Apple has collaborated with Excite to provide information delivery and Internet navigation services in Mac OS 8 via special versions of Excite's leading navigation services--Excite My Channel, Excite Search, and Excite Guide.

With Personal Web Sharing and Personal Net Finder users have easy access to Internet authoring and sharing of content within intranets and over the Internet. Personal Web Sharing instantly turns any Mac OS computer into a web server by enabling HTML and other web formatted content to be accessed by web browsers on any platform. Personal Net Finder provides a Finder-like listing of shared files and folders on a Mac OS computer to anyone connecting to it.

Apple's multi-platform QuickTime® Media Layer (QTML) technologies are showcased in Mac OS 8 to provide customers with premier multimedia authoring and playback capabilities. QuickTime 2.5, QuickTime VR 2.0, QuickDraw® 3D 1.5, and QuickDraw GX are all integrated in Mac OS 8.

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS 8 is available now in the U.S. and Canada. The estimated retail price for Mac OS 8 in the U.S. is $99 for the CD-ROM version. Mac OS 7.6. or Mac OS 7.6.1 owners are eligible for a $30 rebate, bringing the upgrade for those customers to U.S. $69. Customers qualify for the upgrade rebate if they purchased the retail version of Mac OS 7.6, purchased a system that came with Mac OS 7.6 or 7.6.1, or received Mac OS 7.6 or 7.6.1 through the Mac OS Up-To-Date Program. Customers who purchased the retail version of Mac OS 7.6 in the U.S. between June 1 and July 31, 1997 are eligible to receive Mac OS 8 for the shipping and handling charge of U.S. $9.95 by calling the Apple Software Order Center at (800) 293-6617.

Mac OS 8 is available for purchase on CD-ROM only, however customers may request a floppy diskette version of Mac OS 8 after purchasing the CD-ROM version by returning the coupon included inside the box. The floppy version is available for U.S. $25 plus $6.95 shipping and handling and applicable sales tax.

Customers who purchase a qualifying Macintosh or Mac OS-compatible computer on or after June 22, 1997 that does not have Mac OS 8 installed or included can upgrade for the shipping and handling fee of U.S. $9.95 through the Mac OS Up-To-Date Program. For more information, visit http://www.macos.apple.com/macos/releases/fulfillment.html or call (800) 335-9258.

Localized versions of Mac OS 8 are expected to be available to customers in many countries outside the U.S. in approximately 90 days. To ensure the compatibility of Mac OS 8 with all Apple Language Kits, an updater is now available on the Apple website at: http://www.info.apple.com.

For additional information on Mac OS 8, please visit the Mac OS 8 website at: http://www.macos.apple.com/macos8/.

System Requirements
Mac OS 8 works with most existing applications, extensions and drivers, and provides excellent backward compatibility. Mac OS 8 supports all 68040- and PowerPC processor-based Mac OS compatible systems. 68030-based systems, including those with PowerPC upgrade cards, are not supported. Mac OS 8 supports Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP)-based systems. At least 12 MB of physical RAM is required. With less than 20 MB of physical RAM, virtual memory must be turned on and set to at least 20 MB.

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry and leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on easy-to-use personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, personal digital assistants and Internet content. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions, products, technologies and services for business, education, consumer, entertainment, scientific and engineering and government customers in more than 140 countries.

Apple Canada Inc. is headquartered in Markham, Ontario and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc. Apple products are available at more than 300 Authorized Apple Canada Dealer locations across Canada.

Apple Canada's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.apple.com/ca/.

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