Mcafee.Com To Enter Wireless Handheld Application Services Market - Company Business and Marketing - Brief Article

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, April 3, 2000

McAfee.com (Nasdaq: MCAF), a leading global consumer Application Service Provider (ASP) of PC security and management services, announced it plans to deliver the McAfee.com PDA Center, a collection of Web-based security and management services for the wireless handheld device market. McAfee.com intends to launch the PDA Center in the second quarter of 2000.

The PDA Center is designed to provide security and management services similar to those offered in McAfee.com's Clinic and Personal Firewall services, for the emerging market of Internet-enabled handheld and wireless devices. This expanding market includes the growing population of highly mobile personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Internet-connected telephones and pagers.

Industry experts predict the portability of PDAs and other Web-friendly devices, and the simplicity of communication between home computers and office networks will make such devices more attractive to a growing population of users. According to market researcher IDC, the number of users of wireless devices with access to information services and Internet messaging in the United States, will increase from 7.4 million users in 1999 to 61.5 million by 2003. By 2005, this number is expected to reach 830 million.