Apple Computer officials said here on Wednesday that Asia was a key market for the company's Internet-related business.
"Asia represents the best opportunity for Apple in the Internet," Vincent Lum, marketing director of Apple Asia, said at a presentation during the Intermedia and Internet Asia 96 exhibition in Singapore.
He said Apple would deliver to Asia powerful and open-standard media solutions for both the Internet and Intranet. Intranet refers to internal networks of companies connected to the Internet.
Senior officials said Apple was establishing partnerships and business and marketing alliances to bring such solutions to the Internet for its customers.
Its MacIntosh computers would be "Internet ready" with an "all-in-one-box" connection kit that includes Netscape
Users would have a choice of different ISPs.
The company soon would provide Cyberdog, a suite of Internet tools that let users manage their Internet resources to fit the way they work.
Apple products also have multilingual capabilities, said Lum.
The company plans to be aggressive on the server front in Asia, offering cost-effective Mac operating system-based Internet and Intranet servers, he said.
Apple is currently working on extending Internet access capability to its handheld devices, the Newton, and its new "information appliance," the Pippin. The Pippin, currently licensed to Bandai Co Ltd <7967.T> in Japan, connects to a television set and brings games playing and easy personal finance into the living room. It is not yet available in Asia, but shipments to the U.S. are expected in September.