We at Compaq know that our success comes from one source only, and that's our customers. We also know that in this highly competitive business, we must continuously earn your trust and your confidence. To that end, we are committed to provide you with innovative products like the ones you will see on display at our booth here at the Javits Center to deliver the most rewarding buying experience and to constantly improve our ability to meet your computing needs. It is this last point that is really at the heart of what I want to talk about today how Compaq is evolving to meet your rapidly changing needs.

In this interconnected world, customer expectations have never been higher. You expect to be able to access the information you need quickly and easily, from any place at any time using virtually any computing device. You expect vendors to deliver more power at a lower cost and to make it easier to buy, operate, integrate and service their products. You expect the information infrastructure to be reliable and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year whether you're talking about the network itself or the systems that support your on-line bank or on-line bookstore or on-line grocery. In this environment, Compaq determined that we needed to do more for our customers. We wanted to take the attributes that had made us successful: industry standard platforms, strong partnerships, useful innovation, customer responsiveness, and apply them to the full range of computing from the palmtop al1 the way to the data center.

And finally, we will build even stronger relationships with you -our customers. I hope you will look at Compaq not only as a computing company, but as a strategic partner whose mission is to give you what you need when you need it and how you want it, at the lowest total cost.