Microtek Readies New Retail Products and Programs

Retail lineup of color scanners sell themselves with "magic" price point,
multi-media merchandising and dynamic packaging.

REDONDO BEACH, CA, June 20, 1995 - Microtek Lab, Inc., one of the leading
manufacturers of professional desktop scanners, has enhanced its position
for volume retail scanner sales with prices as low as $199, rivaling
entry-level handheld scanners.

Along with its retail pricing model, Microtek is gearing up to expand its
presence in computer superstores, mass merchant and consumer electronic
chains. Microtek will soon release its newly developed CD-ROM-based
multimedia training and merchandising tool, the Microtek Virtual Scanner
created by the Graphix Zone, the producers of the recent Prince
Interactive and Bob Dylan Highway 61 Interactive multimedia hits.
Packaging for Microtek scanners will have a four-color, high-impact
graphics retail look.

According to Woody Hale, vice president of marketing and sales, "Microtek's
new pricing model, multimedia merchandising and packaging strategy
positions the company for greater consumer-level sales. With the scanner
industry projected to expand to $1.2 billion, Microtek anticipates that
the increased unit volume will be driven by consumers upgrading from
handhelds and first-time scanner users attracted by low price. For
scanners to sell off the shelf, they need to sell themselves, and Microtek
has been working with retailers to develop merchandising tools and
programs with mass market appeal."

LOW PRICES, VOLUME SALES

Led by the $199 Microtek PageWiz personal scanner, Microtek scanners offer
the best performance and value in the small office/home office market
today. The Microtek PageWiz combines scanning, faxing, printing, OCR, and
image editing in a hardware/software package lower in price than many
popular high volume consumer electronic products such as the traditional
fax machine, high-end electronic organizers, and color hand-held
scanners.

For grayscale and black and white flatbed scanning with image editing and
OCR, Microtek's ScanMaker IIG's suggested street price is $249, an
incomparable value in scanning.

Rapidly escalating sales of CD-ROM drives, multimedia systems, and graphics
and image-based "edutainment" software is also driving the demand for
economically-priced color input devices. Ranging from $400 to $600,
Microtek's ScanMaker color flatbed scanners provide a low-cost entry into
color flatbed scanning. On a value comparison basis, ScanMaker flatbed
scanners offer consumers price, quality and versatility that surpass
handheld scanners.

Microtek's ScanMaker II is a 24-bit, three-pass color flatbed scanner with
a $399 suggested street price, and the award-winning ScanMaker IISP 24-bit
color flatbed has a suggested street price of $499. Both scanners bundle
Caere's OmniPage Direct for Optical Character Recognition for Windows and
Macintosh. Microtek's ImageStar II image editing software is available on
the PC, with Color It! 3.0 available on the Macintosh.

The ScanMaker IIHR offers 24-bit color, and 600 x 1200 dpi high-resolution
scanning for a suggested street price of $599 with OmniPage Direct and
ImageStar II, or Color It 3.0.

NEW RETAIL PRICE MODEL

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Model                     Price (from)    Price (to)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ScanMaker IIG                 $349 (SSP)     $249  (SSP)
ImageStar II                  $459           $399
ScanMaker IISP                $549           $499
ScanMaker IIHR for Windows    $799           $599
---------------------------------------------------------------------
All come bundled with:  ImageStar II (PC)
                        Color It! 3.0 (Mac)
                        OmniPage Direct
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Microtek Virtual Scanner Speeds Scanner Sales Velocity

Microtek's newly-developed Virtual Scanner, a sight and sound merchandising
and training tool, can help retailers cash in on exploding sales in the
scanner market. The Virtual Scanner, with full-motion video clips,
entertaining animation and graphics, and conversational narration, will
entice salespeople to learn about, and customers to purchase, the computer
industry's "nextwave" peripheral.

Retailers can use the Microtek Virtual Scanner as a training tool, as an
electronic kiosk using an existing, on-the-shelf computer system, and as a
sales incentive to stimulate store traffic and scanner sales. The
five-minute interactive, self-looping presentation explains the virtues
and features of scanning in an educational, yet entertaining, format. Both
salespeople and customers alike will learn about color and text scanning,
resolution, and the many creative and time-saving applications that
scanners offer.

By simply loading the self-running Microtek Virtual Scanner demo on a PC,
Macintosh or PowerMac, retailers can easily answer the needs of customers
who request in-store scanner demonstrations, without having to invest in
repeated sales trainings or additional sales staff. Retailers can also
offer the Microtek Virtual Scanner as a free gift or sales incentive to
increase store traffic and drive department-wide computer and scanner
sales.

PACKAGING FOR SALES

Microtek's retail packaging was designed to attract consumer interest and
sell scanners, keeping in mind the practical realities of the retail store
environment.

For eye-catching floor stack or endcap displays, Microtek's award-winning
ScanMaker IISP, for example, offers colorful packaging loaded with product
information, features/benefits, and descriptions and photos of how
scanners are used in the home, at the office, by students, business people
or designers. Text is large and easy to read, awards highlighted, and
system requirements and specifications clearly visible.

No matter how the box is displayed on the shelf, all front, back and side
panels provide valuable product information, including readily scannable
UPC code. Also, designed with a convenient carrying handle, the box is
easy to move from shelf, to cart, to car.

AVAILABILITY

Microtek's new pricing model will be in effect starting July 1, 1995. The
ScanMaker family of scanners is available through Ingram Micro, Merisel,
Tech Data and MicroAge.

The Virtual Scanner CD-ROM can be ordered through Microtek's Sales Support
department at 1-800-654-4160 starting September, 1995.

Microtek Lab Inc
3715 Doolittle Drive
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
310-297-5000,  fax 310-297-5050

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