HP and Apple Partner to Deliver Digital Music Player and iTunes to HP Customers

Working to provide consumers with the most compelling digital content whenever and wherever they desire, HP and Apple today announced a strategic alliance to deliver an HP-branded digital music player based on Apple's iPod, the number one digital music player in the world, and Apple's award-winning iTunes digital music jukebox and pioneering online music store* to HP's customers.

As part of the alliance, HP consumer PCs and notebooks will comepre-installed with Apple's iTunes jukebox software and an easy-referencedesktop icon to point consumers directly to the iTunes Music Store, ensuringa simple, seamless music experience. This offering is yet another way thatHP is helping consumers enjoy more from their personal digital entertainmentcontent.

“HP's goal is to bring the most compelling entertainment content andexperiences to our customers”, said Carly Fiorina, chairman and chiefexecutive officer at HP. “We explored a range of alternatives to deliver agreat digital music experience and concluded Apple's iPod music player andiTunes music service were the best by far. By partnering with Apple, wehave the opportunity to add value by integrating the world's best digitalmusic offering into HP's larger digital entertainment system strategy”.

“Apple's goal is to get iPods and iTunes into the hands of every music lover around the world, and partnering with HP, an innovative consumer company, is going to help us do just that”, said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. “As the industry balkanises by offering digital music wrapped in a multitude of incompatible proprietary technologies, consumers will be reassured in getting the same unparalleled digital music solutions from both HP andApple, two leaders in the digital music era”.

According to internal HP research, more than 54 percent of current HPconsumers download music to their PCs.

Over two million iPods have been sold since its introduction, solidifyingits position as the number one digital music player in the world. All iPodswork seamlessly with the award-winning iTunes digital music jukebox softwareand the iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 30 million songs,providing music fans with the best digital music experience on either a Macor Windows PC.

The iTunes Music Store offers Windows and Mac users a music catalogue ofmore than 500,000 songs, the same ‘gold standard' personal use rights and the same 99 cents-per-song pricing. The iTunes Music Store features onlinegift certificates for family and friends; Apple's innovative andpatent-pending online “Allowance” feature, which allows parents toautomatically deposit funds into their kids' iTunes Music Store accountevery month; more than 5,000 audiobooks, which can be purchased with oneclick and listened to on a Mac or Windows computer as well as on iPods;Celebrity Playlists; and new exclusive tracks from more than 60 artists. TheiTunes Music Store offers music from all five major music companies and over200 independent music labels.

Pricing & Availability:

HP's digital music player is expected to become available this summer and be competitively priced to other digital music players currently available.

Beginning this summer, the iTunes software and a desktop icon guiding usersto the music site will be preloaded on HP Pavilion, Media Center and CompaqPresario desktop and notebook consumer PCs.

* Purchases and downloads from the iTunes Music Store are currently limitedto US-based customers. Browsing the catalogue and listening to previews ofsongs can be done by all iTunes 4 users.

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses andinstitutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure,personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging andprinting. For the fiscal year ending on October 31st, 2003, HP revenue totalledUS$73.1 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

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