New Features for the Mobile Professional

REDMOND, Wash. - Oct. 13, 1997 - - Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Microsoft® Windows® CE operating system version 2.0 for the Handheld PC (H/PC) has been shipped to 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs): Casio Computer Company Ltd., Compaq Computer Corp., Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard Co., Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., NEC Corp., Novatel Wireless Inc., Philips Electronics and Sharp Corp.

"Now that the Handheld PC has been out for a year, we've seen how people use these devices. We have added color and Pocket PowerPoint®, strengthening the Handheld PC's role as a companion to the desktop PC," said Craig Mundie, senior vice president of the consumer platforms division at Microsoft. "In addition, enhancements to security and connectivity features enable companies to deploy business applications on the Windows CE platform."

"We plan to automate a part of the trading process by providing our brokers with a custom application that runs on H/PCs equipped with wireless modems," said John Hewitt, vice president of equities for Goldman, Sachs & Co. "We expect H/PCs to make a dramatic difference in the way we do business and significantly enhance our client service by allowing our brokers to exchange important information electronically."

"With this new generation of H/PCs based on Windows CE, we believe the market is really poised to take off for this category," said Andrew Seybold of Andrew Seybold's Outlook, a computing and communications industry newsletter. "This is a very robust set of features, and the new development tools and corporate focus will make it a very attractive platform for even more software innovation."

The new enhancements to Windows CE 2.0 for the H/PC include the following:

• Ease of use. Enhancements have been made to the user interface, including color and enhanced gray scale support, taskbar customization, cascading menus and scalable TrueType fonts. Users can now view both PC files and Web pages without leaving Pocket Internet Explorer.
• Improved connectivity. Ethernet access has been added so users can connect to data from local or remote locations. H/PCs now directly link to printers, either by serial or infrared connections. Security has been enhanced, including new authentication when accessing a corporate network as well as file-level security on the H/PC device. The addition of secure sockets layer (SSL) to Pocket Internet Explorer provides users with a safer environment for accessing Web-based applications.
• Effortless synchronization. For the first time, e-mail and files can be synchronized rather than just downloaded between a desktop PC and the H/PC, in addition to personal information management (PIM) data in the Outlook™ desktop information manager. Now, with ActiveSync™ technology, the desktop PC can automatically start synchronizing when the H/PC is connected, and then continuously synchronize all changes while connected. ActiveSync works between one H/PC and two desktop PCs. In addition, multiple H/PC users can synchronize with one desktop PC.
• E-mail attachments. Support is now provided for e-mail attachments, such as Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint presentation graphics program-based documents, and rich HTML Web pages, voice and graphics. Group scheduling is now supported as well.
• Pocket PowerPoint. Pocket PowerPoint has been added to the suite of H/PC Pocket applications. With Pocket PowerPoint, users can display presentations authored on the desktop, plus edit the title slide and reorder the slides. Pocket PowerPoint lets speakers see their presentation notes and slides on the H/PC while slides are projected on a VGA monitor or TV screen.
• Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. A spelling checker has been added to Pocket Word. Customizable views, including split screen and freeze pane, make data in Pocket Excel more readable. Both Pocket Word and Pocket Excel have been enhanced with zoom and full-screen views, richer formatting and file-level password protection.

Pricing and Availability

Each OEM will set its own pricing and will ship its specific Windows CE 2.0-based Handheld PCs on its own timetable. Casio Computer, Hewlett-Packard, NEC and Philips

Electronics have announced Windows CE 2.0 ROM upgrade programs for their current H/PC customers.

For more information about Handheld PCs, Windows CE and available third-party applications, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce/products/hpc/.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Windows, PowerPoint, Outlook and ActiveSync are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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