Mitsui Comtek Corporation announces the development of the industry's first Internet access telephone with a color VGA touch panel display.

The Comtek Interactive Phone, project code named Saratoga, will be shown in a private suite at the upcoming COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas. It is scheduled to ship through OEM alliances into multiple sales channels in March,1998.

Saratoga originates an exciting new category of Internet access appliance with its large color display and exceptional telephony features. Saratoga features attended and unattended e-mail, fax, voice mail messaging and paging, as well as the capability to retrieve and display custom information from the Internet.

Andrew Seybold, noted telecommunications analyst and editor-in-chief of The Outlook newsletter, commented: "Internet access via a screen phone is one of the hot waves of the future. Mitsui's Interactive Phone products are both timely and the best of breed."

The expansion of e-mail and the Internet as a means of communication as well as the continuing use of voice mail, paging and fax technology presents a dilemma for those wishing to stay informed. Access to these diverse forms of messages typically requires several devices and it is difficult to determine when each should be used. Saratoga brings all of these communication channels together into one device that serves as a single window to all relevant information.

Mitsui is not new to introducing successful technology categories. With partners Zenith Data Systems and Tottori Sanyo in the mid 1980s, Mitsui gained a dominant share of the laptop and notebook computer market for period extending over six years. Mitsui Comtek feels that conditions now favor a similar emerging product paradigm for this emerging category of Internet appliances.

Mitsui Comtek is the technology subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. (USA) and Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Japan, one of the largest multinational conglomerates in the world, with approximately U.S.$200 billion in annual revenue. Incorporated in Silicon Valley in 1986, Mitsui Comtek specializes in creating strategic synergies in electronics, communications and multimedia industries.