Akia Corporation Launches Austin Headquarters and Leads Industry with Latest Technologies Available in Desktop and Notebook Computers

Business Wire, Sept 18, 1997

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1997--Akia Corporation, a developer of uniquely packaged, leading industry desktop and mobile computing products, today announced the opening of its USA direct marketing operations and headquarters in Austin and the availability of their family of Wintel based personal computer products.

The Mystique(TM) Series is a line of high performance, micro-footprint desktop computers and slimline LCD Active Matrix color monitors that use the latest technology and are among the first products of this type designed for environments where space is a premium. The Tornado(TM) Series includes ultra-slimline, high performance notebooks weighing less than 5 1/2 pounds and measuring just over 1 1/2" thick. The notebooks are powered by Intel's new mobile 200MHz and 233MHz Pentium(R) processors with MMX(TM) technology and Intel's Mobile Module packaging and are among the first products in this category to sell direct to U.S. customers. All products will begin shipping in early October.

Akia Corporation was established in Japan on Sept. 18, 1995 by Katsumi Iizuka, a former president of Dell Computer Japan. Iizuka, who while at Dell pioneered selling PCs direct in Japan, based Akia Corporation on the same direct model. In less than two years, Akia, Japan has been recognized as one of the fastest growing computer companies. In June 1997, Dr. David S. Register, also a former Dell executive, began the organization of Akia Corporation, USA. Leveraging the success of Akia, Japan, his strong relationships with key Asian manufacturing partners and the direct response marketing model that originated in Austin, Register identified his core technology and marketing executives to drive Akia, USA.

"Our philosophy is to get the most innovative notebook and desktop packaging and technologies directly into the customer's hands quickly and efficiently," said Dr. David Register, president of Akia Corporation, USA. "We operate a lean, experienced team with extensive PC and direct response marketing backgrounds combined with established Pacific Rim development and manufacturing partnerships. This, we believe, will consistently enable us to develop desirable, high-performance computing products and be among the first to provide them directly to customers."

Akia's product line offers powerful and uniquely packaged mobile and desktop computing solutions ideal for small work space environments including home offices, corporate cubicles, warehouse or remote office settings where space is a premium.

Customers can order products directly from Akia by phone. In the near future, the company plans to extend its direct sales channel by offering Internet commerce as an option for customers.

"We see Internet Commerce as the next logical step in the direct response model," added Register.

Akia Corporation computer products will be manufactured in the Asia Pacific region according to Akia requirements. All sales, marketing, system configuration and customer support will be based in Austin.

Products

The Mystique Desktop Series is a line of micro-footprint desktop computers. Designed with Intel's Pentium processors with MMX technology at 166 MHz and 233 MHz, the Mystique series offers premium performance with a distinct form factor advantage. While taking up 75% less desktop space, the Mystique systems are fully functional offering features such as integrated LAN 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet, 16-bit stereo sound, 2 USB ports, high speed infrared, high performance video, and expansion for future upgrades.

The Mystique LCD Monitor series is one of the industry's first line of flat panel LCD color displays. These monitors are designed to provide brilliant image quality for space constrained environments. The LCD displays offer a 14.5" viewable image area, and require significantly less deskspace than a typical 17" CRT, which has a comparable viewable area. The Mystique LCD monitors include an industry standard RGB interface (in some models), an Active Matrix color LCD design, and a 1024x768 pixel resolution, producing a brilliant, high contrast, high quality picture that is distortion and flicker free.

The Tornado Series is a line of high performance notebook computers. These ultra-slim, full function notebooks are among the most powerful notebooks available to the market today. Weighing less than 5 1/2 pounds and measuring just over 1 1/2" thick the Tornado notebooks are designed with Intel's powerful 200MHz and 233MHz mobile Pentium processors with MMX technology. The processors used in these notebooks use Intel's new mobile module technology designed specifically for notebook computers. This technology enables more efficient, low powered, upgradeable, high performance processing. Standards include 32 or 64MB of RAM, 12.1" SVGA or 13.3" XGA Active Matrix displays, 2GB or 3GB hard drives, a Lithium Ion battery and a 20X CD-ROM drive.

Pricing

The Mystique(TM) Desktop Personal Computers

Akia Mystique M233 ($1,999) Features include 233MHz Pentium(R) Processor with MMX(TM) Technology; 32MB synchronous DRAM memory (256MB Max); 4.0GB enhanced IDE hard drive; 16X Max variable CD-ROM drive; 4MB 3D 64-bit PCI graphics accelerator; integrated Ethernet LAN 10/100Base-TX; 16-bit stereo sound system, Microsoft Windows(R) '95 pre-installed.