Beyond.com Enhances Digital Software Delivery

Software retailer Beyond.com unveiled a
proprietary process for the Internet Explorer browser that lets consumers
download digitized software from the Internet to the computer desktop with a
few simple clicks.

The company said that its Beyond.com Download Manager enables people to
download software digitally from Microsoft’s browser more easily than before,
rather than ordering software in a box whose disks or CD-ROMs must then be
manually loaded onto a computer.

“With the Beyond.com Download Manager, all software automatically downloads
directly to the desktop, creating a new icon on the user screen,” said Mark
Breier, president and chief executive officer of Beyond.com. “Downloading
software is now a matter of following a few, easy prompts. Once software has
been downloaded to a desktop, activating that software is simply another
mouseclick.”

Beyond.com said it expects to unveil a comparable Download Manager for
Netscape’s Navigator browser in coming months.

“Software that is digitized, and therefore can be downloaded from the Internet
in bits and bytes, accounts for a growing percentage of the software we sell,”
said Beyond.com Chief Technology Officer John Pettitt.

“Before today, the
digital download of software was a challenge even for experienced, Internet-
savvy customers. Beyond.com’s Download Manager changes all that, making the
digital delivery of software so easy just about anyone can do it.”

Over the next six months, Pettitt said the company plans continuous
improvements to the ease and simplicity of digitally downloading software from
its site.

Beyond.com has about 39,000 software stock-keeping units (SKUs) available for
online purchase with 5,600 SKUs available for immediate, electronic delivery,
including software from Adobe, Lotus, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and
Symantec.