FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GATEWAY 2000 launches E-Series PCs designed for the corporate market

New product line reinforces company's commitment to expand business in the large company marketplace

NORTH SIOUX CITY, SD, May 21, 1997. - Gateway 2000, Inc. (NYSE, GTW), one of the world's largest direct marketers of personal computers, today announced a new line of high performance desktop PCs targeted at large system users. The Gateway E-Series, the new enterprise-level product offering, is a key component in the company's efforts to expand business in the corporate and large site marketplace. This specialized product line complements Gateway's investments in its Major Accounts sales force and leverages on its ISO-9002 certified manufacturing and award-winning service and technical support.

"The E-series desktops evolved directly from input provided by corporate and other large volume customers. It's a natural step in the expansion of our direct business model," said Ted Waitt, Gateway's chairman and CEO. "This is a broad product series addressing many types of large-user needs. Our product range stretches from the low profile E-1000, to E-3000 mainstream desktops, to the E-5000 Pentium II workstations in the future. Changes to technology will be tightly managed, typically two per year. We are confident this level of stability, technology, feature set and pricing will meet the needs of a wide range of corporate users and we invite comparison. Considering our investments in E-Series, the Gateway Solo mobile products line, our Major Accounts sales and dedicated Corporate Technical support staffs, it should be clear why we say that Gateway really does mean business."

E-Series Line Divisions

E-1000 - Network systems designed for large volume applications
E-3000 - Pentium Processor based network systems
E-3100 - Pentium II Processor based systems

E-Series Design Themes

Stable Platform Focus: Gateway E-Series systems incorporate a common feature set across all platforms providing the stability, consistency, and ease of integration expected by institutional IT departments. Platform transitions will be managed for stability while maintaining an aggressive technology focus thereby allowing customers to adopt new technologies at a controlled pace.

Connectivity: Gateway designed the E-Series systems specifically for networked environments. All E-Series PCs come standard with Ethernet networking solutions and have undergone extensive in-house Novell certification and compatibility testing with Windows NT and Windows 95 operating systems. Some systems will also include remote "wake up" capabilities.

Manageability: All E-Series systems will ship with Intel's LANDeskÔ Client Manager v3.01. Features include SMART drive and PC health indicators like temperature and voltage monitors. These features help detect and avoid costly product failures, and reduce or eliminate the need for MIS personnel to diagnose problems on-site.

Serviceability: E-series systems will ship in new, tool-free access desktop and midtower cases featuring standard drive openings, color coded I/O cables, and case security options. These features translate into easy setup, great flexibility and theft protection.

Major Accounts Sales Division
All products in the E-series line will be marketed through an expanded Major Accounts sales and support infrastructure. This expansion will effectively double the number of sales and support staff and provide greater emphasis on face-to-face sales with regional and local account executives in key U.S. cities.

Support and Service
Gateway E-series product is supported by a dedicated corporate technical support organization focused on the needs of Gateway's corporate, government and education customers. Technicians working in the corporate function handle only large site accounts and receive advanced training in networking and other areas. Gateway 2000 provides a three year limited warranty for desktop systems*, as well as 7/24, 365 days a year toll free technical support. Gateway 2000 has the ability to meet a wide range of customer needs for specialized services, including on-site assistance, through relationships with leading PC service providers.

Custom Integration Services
Gateway's unique Custom Integration Services (CIS) function allows large-volume purchasers to receive systems configured with hardware and software specific to their organizations. Much like VAR, CIS enables Gateway to integrate customer software or hardware components not part of Gateway 2000's standard product offering into that customer's product. CIS enables organizations to reduce their post-manufacturing handling, expenses and time demands on their MIS resources. Custom components include application and operating system software downloads, network cards, terminal cards, video cards, hard drives, TBUs, CD-ROMs, scanners, memory expansion, and most other internal or external peripherals.

"Our new E-series of PCs puts a signature on our commitment to the commercial marketplace, whom we have been quietly and successfully serving for years," said Bill Shea, vice president of Gateway 2000 major accounts. "Our direct business model and its inherent efficiencies, have allowed us to tailor our products, services, and infrastructure into initiatives that have produced phenomenal results."

Industry Analysts Make the Following Comments:
"Clearly, as technology has become more complex in its implementation, the need for direct dialogue with manufacturers has become a key customer requirement," said Aaron Goldberg, executive vice president of Computer Intelligence. "Gateway now brings tremendous skills in this area to the enterprise customer. This will provide a strong vendor alternative for mobile, desktop and server products in the enterprise."

"Gateway 2000 is perfectly positioned to capitalize on its reputation as a value leader to take advantage of increased sales into the corporate market," says Joe Ferlazzo, analyst, Technology Business Research. "TBR's quarterly Corporate IT Buying Behavior Study indicates that Gateway 2000 is perceived as a value leader in the desktop PC market by Fortune 500 companies. As Gateway expands its sales force and its product lines with a broader range of portables and new desktops, the company will be able to capitalize on its reputation as a value leader and achieve incremental sales in these product areas in the corporate market."

Gateway is a known leader in supplying the latest technology with an aggressive price-performance-value mix. Such recognition has led to a substantial customer base among corporate, government and education market spaces. Gateway led direct vendors of PCs in the highly competitive Federal Government GSA 70 B/C schedule for fiscal year 1995 and 1996. Gateway 2000 has been named "Supplier of the Year" by both Aetna Life Insurance and Union Pacific, and has a presence in eight out of ten Fortune 1000 companies.

For more sales and acquisition information call 800-779-2000 or visit our Internet site at http://www.gw2k.com.

About Gateway 2000
Gateway 2000, Inc., a Fortune 500 company founded in 1985, is a global leader in the direct marketing of PCs. The company, headquartered in North Sioux City, South Dakota, has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Ireland and Malaysia, and employs over 10,000 people worldwide. Gateway 2000 products and services consistently win top awards from leading industry publications. In 1996, the company shipped 1.9 million systems and reported revenues of $5 billion and net income of $250 million.

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