News Release:World's Two Largest PC Manufacturers, HP and Dell, Join Blu-ray Disc Founders

Information contained in the news release is current as of the date of announcement.
It is subject to change without prior notice.

Pioneer
January 30, 2004
Dell, Inc.
Hewlett-Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
SHARP CORPORATION
Sony Corporation
Thomson

World's Two Largest PC Manufacturers, HP and Dell, Join Blu-ray Disc Founders

Blu-ray Disc

Tokyo -- January 30, 2004 -- HP and Dell, have joined the Blu-ray Disc Founders, adding support from the world's two largest PC manufacturers to the already broad support from the consumer electronics industry for the Blu-ray Disc format being developed to provide high-capacity optical-disc storage to support high-definition TV and other emerging technologies.

Dell and HP announced their support for the Blu-ray Disc format at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month and have now formally joined the organization responsible for developing and promoting the revolutionary new format for high-capacity optical discs.

"It's extremely important that any optical-disc format be suitable for use in both PCs and consumer electronics devices and have strong support from the movie industry and other content providers," said Maureen Weber, general manager -of the Optical Storage Solutions at HP. "We joined the Blu-ray Disc Founders because Blu-ray is the format that best enables the PC, consumer-electronics and entertainment industries to provide the kind of applications and content consumers will expect as high-definition TV and other emerging high-capacity applications become more widely available."

"We think Blu-ray Disc has the potential to bring a whole new level of entertainment and functionality to our customers," said Richard Masselink, senior manager of storage peripherals at Dell. "Blu-ray Disc's revolutionary architecture allows it to take full advantage of high-definition TV, broadband Internet connectivity and other emerging technologies. Now that we're part of the BDF, Dell looks forward to working with other members to bring the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology to consumers."

Both HP and Dell have been focusing on blue-laser technology as an important element in establishing the next generation high-density and high-grade optical disc recording technology. The companies have identified the BDF's Blu-ray Disc format as the most promising technology in this area and have contributed to the format's development through technical proposals to the BDF.

The BDF began licensing the Blu-ray Disc Rewritable format in February 2003 and is currently developing BD-ROM "read-only" and BD-R "Recordable" formats.

With the addition of HP and Dell, a total of twelve BDF members will devote themselves to further technological development at the highest level in the industry, while promoting the Blu-ray Disc formats to benefit related industries worldwide.

The Blu-ray Disc Founders formed officially in May 2002 to pursue broad acceptance of the Blu-ray Disc formats. Member companies so far include Dell, Inc.; HP; Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ,Ltd. (Panasonic); Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung Electronics Co. ,Ltd.; SHARP CORPORATION; Sony Corporation and Thomson.

<< For media inquiries, contact: >>

HP
Kevin Beagley (Tel) +1 281 518 6789
Dell, Inc.
Lionel Menchaca (Tel) +1 512-728-8685
Hitachi, Ltd.
Masahiro Takahashi (Tel) +1 650 244 7920
LG Electronics Inc.
Do Young Nam (Tel) +82 2 526 4708
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ,Ltd. (Panasonic)
International PR, Tokyo - Akira Kadota / Wilson Solano (Tel) +81 3 3578 1237
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Oliver Cox (Tel) +81 3 3218 2346
Royal Philips Electronics
Jeannet Harpe (Tel) +31 40 27 35677
Pioneer Corporation
Public Relations (Tel) +81 3 3495 9885
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Claude Frank (Tel) +1 201 229 4008
SHARP CORPORATION
Masanobu Umemoto (Tel) +81 66 621 1272
Sony Corporation of America
Mack Araki (Tel) +1 212 833 6821
Thomson
Dave Arland (Tel) +1 317 587 4450

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