Below is a Q&A, following some remarks attributed to Dr. Amelio on 30 October. We are working with journalists to try to ensure this story does not gain momentum and have asked Bloomberg Business News to write a clarification story. If they do not we will issue a statement later on today.

In the meantime please forward all press calls to myself.

Best Regards,
Russell Brady
Platform & Technologies PR Manager
Apple Computer Inc.
Tel. (408) 974 6877
email: brady2@apple.com

Q.  Did Dr. Gil Amelio announce Apple=Be OS strategy in Monterey on 30 October?

A.  No.  Dr Amelio was speaking in response to a question about operating system futures and he stated the following:

No 1.  The complexity of today's operating systems is reaching overload and this requires a complete OS overhaul, from the foundation up.

No 2.  Such an overhaul would make it possible for any next generation OS to be portable to other microprocessors.

Apple's OS strategic direction remains unchanged.  Apple will release incremental upgrades to the operating system.  Apple is in the process of finalizing its long term operating system strategy and will announce this by early 1997.

Q. Will Apple ship a new OS in 1998 that will run on Intel, Sun and IBM/Motorola microprocessors?

A. Apple's strategic hardware direction remains PowerPC.  Dr. Amelio was commenting that next generation operating systems by definition have the ability to run on different microprocessors. This comment should not be viewed as a commitment from Apple Computer that its future OS will run on Intel, Sun or other non-PowerPC processors.

Q. Did Dr. Amelio confirm that the foundation layer for the next generation Mac OS will not be available until 1998?

A.  Apple has moved to an incremental OS release strategy, that allows our R&D efforts to remain nimble enough to keep ahead of customer needs in the internet/intranet era.  Apple has not yet announced the timeframe for a foundation layer upgrade of the Mac OS. Apple is in the process of finalizing its long term operating system strategy and will announce this by early 1997.

Q. Is the Copland project dead?

A: Apple's next generation OS is being called Mac OS 8. With Apple's new OS strategy users can expect much of the features and functionality of Copland to be included in both Mac OS 7.x and Mac OS 8.0.