Compaq's Workstation Launch Reinforces Leadership in Windows NT Distributed Environments

Business Wire, Oct 29, 1996

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 1996--

Compaq Poised to Capture New Markets and

Reduce the Total Cost of Ownership for Workstations

Editors' Summary

-- Compaq introduced the first five models of the Compaq Professional Workstation, offering uncompromising performance at prices up to 75 percent less than traditional RISC/UNIX workstations (a).

-- Compaq demonstrated how its new Compaq Professional Workstation is the right workstation from the right company at the right time.

-- The company reiterated its goal to become one of the top three computer companies by the year 2000.

Standing virtually at the doorsteps of rivals that offer traditional proprietary workstations, executives of Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ), the fifth largest computer company in the world and the leading supplier of commercial desktops and servers, today launched the Compaq Professional Workstation family - their own high-performance entry into the fast-growing NT/X86 (b) workstation market. Compared to other workstation offerings, the Compaq Professional Workstation will appeal to professional customers seeking high performance with low total cost of ownership, the widest variety of applications, and the backing of the industry leader, Compaq.

The Right Time

"This is a great day for workstation customers," declared John T. Rose, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Compaq's Enterprise Computing Group, the parent organization for Compaq's Workstation Division. "With leading industry analysts projecting that customers are going to drive the NT/X86 workstation market to grow more than 40 percent each year through the year 2000 (c), this is the right time to introduce new products to meet demanding workstation customer needs," said Rose, speaking at a press conference here today.

"The timing is right, because there is a critical mass of customers looking for open industry-standard products that deliver great performance, technology choices, and lower total costs of ownership. The timing is right, because there is a critical mass of industry-standard components like Intel Pentium Pro microprocessors that enable us to offer outstanding performance at a price that's second-to-none. The timing is right, because the Microsoft Windows NT tidal wave that has benefited both the server and the desktop is now available for workstations. The timing is right, because of the critical mass of traditional RISC/UNIX application vendors moving aggressively to Windows NT and creating a wide range of choices," Rose said.

The Right Company

Rose also outlined why Compaq is the right company to help drive the workstation market forward.

"The foundation of Compaq's approach to workplace computing is our commitment to open systems and broadly accepted industry standards," Rose said. "Our customers rightfully demand that their business processes drive technology -- and not the other way around," he said, alluding to the high costs with limited choice and flexibility associated with traditional RISC/UNIX workstation solutions.

"Our business model dovetails so well with the needs of the marketplace," Rose explained. "Today's customers want open, industry-standard systems that perform at the level of proprietary RISC/UNIX systems, but that deliver more value, flexibility and adaptability to changing business cycles. The business model of the proprietary RISC/UNIX systems providers has traditionally been a high-margin, yet high-cost business. But Compaq is a different breed of systems company. We start with a highly efficient cost structure, invest our engineering prowess in broadly accepted standards like Windows NT, Pentium Pro and PCI (d), then bring the best ingredients from the best partners into powerful platforms that are seamlessly integrated with the application and network for confident deployment throughout the customer's organization," Rose noted.

"The customers have driven the powerful new momentum toward real open systems by demanding non-proprietary, cost-effective and available solutions," Rose observed. "Of course, this had been envisioned and promised years ago with the advent of RISC and UNIX, but the promise was forgotten over time as unique RISC architectures and vendor-specific UNIX implementations dominated the landscape. Microsoft Windows NT and the Intel Pentium Pro are being embraced as the standard operating system and microprocessor of choice because of their abundant benefits. These benefits include: outstanding performance and scalability at a great price; robust, secure environments for demanding applications; widespread application availability and portability; and a broad array of choices," Rose concluded.

"At the same time, workstation customers have come to expect a certain level of performance, a certain level of integration, and a certain level of hand-holding from workstation vendors," Rose said. "Compaq meets those customers' expectations, but with a different, more cost-effective business model that leverages our partners' strengths to deliver the required performance, integration and support."