Apple Workgroup Servers Clear Winners in World Wide Web Server Cost of
Ownership Study

Study Reveals Apple Web Servers Exhibit Lowest Cost of Ownership, and are
Easiest to Use for Small to Medium-sized Organizations and Workgroups

CUPERTINO, California--Oct. 22, 1997--Apple Computer Inc., revealed today
that its workgroup servers offer a considerable advantage in overall
cost-of-ownership, ease-of-use and maintenance for customers in small
business or workgroups according to a study released by the Business
Research Group (BRG, Newton, Mass). Unlike previous studies of web server
ease-of-implementation and cost-of-ownership, this study examined the
medium-size business market (100-499 employees), and in workgroups (150 or
fewer employees) within larger enterprises (500 or more employees).

According to Cheryl Ball, director of Research for BRG, the target study
was chosen because up until now, this important part of the Internet market
has been ignored. "This study found that medium-sized organizations,
because of their size and relative lack of computer support resources, have
very different needs and values in their web server purchases than their
larger Fortune 1000 counterparts," said Ball. "Most cost-of-ownership
studies look at Fortune 500 companies and their needs and decide that
workgroups and mid-size businesses just need a scaled-down version. This
study indicates this is simply not the case."

BRG studied organizations deploying web servers running Netscape Fastrack
for UNIX, Microsoft Internet Information Server for Windows NT, O'Reilly
Website software for Windows 95 and StarNine's WebSTAR server software
running on a Mac OS-based workgroup server from Apple (the Apple Internet
Server Solution). The study consisted of telephone interviews with 277
U.S.-based webserver managers.

Results of the study indicate that Apple offers advantages in four key areas:
Ease-of-use and maintenance
Overall cost-of-ownership
Apple web servers are used more extensively than the competition Server
capacity is not an issue in this size of group

Bill McGlasson, Apple's product manager for servers explained, "The
findings in BRG's study are significant because this market represents the
fastest-growing market for worldwide web server purchases," said McGlasson.
"There is a built-in bias towards considering the Fortune 1000 as the
defining market segment for all computing. The assumption seems to be that
whatever Fortune 1000 companies need, everybody else needs too. This study
indicates that is not the case and that Apple technology is a key enabler
in providing a compelling Internet presence for small businesses and
workgroups in the enterprise."

Results of the study have been compiled into a whitepaper and can be
accessed on the world wide web
http://applenet.apple.com/text/server_study.html.

Apple Computer, Inc. ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s
with the Apple II, and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with
the Macintosh. Apple is now recommitted to its original mission--to bring
the best personal computing products and support to students, educators,
designers, scientists, engineers, businesspersons, and consumers in over
140 countries around the world.

Press Contacts:
Diane Hayward
Apple Computer, Inc.
(408) 974-0180
email: hayward1@apple.com

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Summary of Key Findings
Business Research Group World Wide Web Server Cost of Ownership Study

Oct. 22, 1997
Apple web servers provide a significantly lower total cost-of-ownership
than the competing servers, based on the following factors: lower initial
costs; lower installation costs; lower content creation costs per page;
lower total outside services costs; lower server management costs; lower
peer training and online help costs. These advantages led to a cumulative
Apple server cost advantages over the other servers considered in the
study: as high as 300 percent per internal user, 144 percent per server and
158 percent per web page.

- Initial System's price: Per server, Apple users spent 205 percent less
than Netscape, 93 percent less than O'Reilly and 66 percent less than
Microsoft.

- Installation costs: Overall, Apple and O'Reilly both have a 72 percent
cost advantage relative to Netscape and a 37 percent cost advantage
relative to Microsoft.

- Outside Services Costs: Apple's cost advantage in this area ranged from
102 percent to 151 percent less than the competition. In general, these
costs consisted of expenses incurred for training and installation/systems
integration.

Apple customers gave Apple's web servers higher overall approval ratings
than the other groups surveyed gave their respective web servers for their
performance in the following two areas:

1. Ease-of-implementation (as evidenced by simplicity of hardware setup and
software installation)

2. Ease-of-management

For the server environments that fall within the scope of the study,
Apple's web server sites are the largest, exhibiting the following
characteristics:

1. More web pages
2. More internal users
3. More servers
4. The second largest number of hits per day.