GTW "out of this world" valuation is finally explained
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 1997--
Gateway is first vendor in history to
receive online order from space
Gateway 2000, Inc. (NYSE: GTW), a global leader in the direct marketing of PCs, made online history
today with cosmonauts on the MIR space station. Flight Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight
Engineer Pavel Vinogradov placed an online order from space via Virtual Emporium for two G6-233
Pentium(R) II systems. The GATEWAY(TM) computer systems were the first products requested in the
first online order from space. The cosmonauts are doing their holiday shopping from MIR since they will
not be returning home until February.
"I always thought our products were out of this world," said Ted Waitt, Chairman and CEO of Gateway
2000. "The online order, in combination with Gateway becoming an Internet Service Provider, testifies to
our commitment in making the web an integral part of our customers' lives, no matter where they are in
the universe. We're moving the web into space.real space is cyberspace and I'm proud that Gateway is
there first."
Virtual Emporium, Inc., a leading online shopping community, Energia, and Mission Control near
Moscow facilitated the Gateway order between the MIR space station and Virtual Emporium's flagship
store for online shopping in New York. Energia is Russia's oldest space organization. It operates the
MIR space station and other support facilities for the Russian space agency.
How the Order was Placed
The cosmonauts utilized Virtual Emporium's online personal shopper to select the desktop systems priced
at $1,999 each. They emailed their choices to Virtual Emporium where the request was translated into
English. From there, the order was placed on Gateway's website and received in Gateway's Kansas
City, Missouri facility. The order was processed and forwarded to Gateway's manufacturing plant in
Dublin, Ireland where the PCs will be built and shipped to Russia.
Web is Powerful Tool for Ordering PCs
For customers orbiting earth or living here on land, ordering PCs via Gateway's website is convenient
and simple. Kathi Middendorff from Sioux Rapids, Iowa ordered her GATEWAY PC around the same
time as the cosmonauts. Middendorff and her family may not be floating 200 miles above the earth, but
she does live in a rural area, far from any major city. Thanks to www.gateway.com, distance has no
bearing on purchasing the latest PC technology.
"When we decided to buy a new computer, we wanted to spend about $2,000," said Middendorff.
"Since we live in a rural area, driving 90 miles to the city just to look at PCs wasn't what we really
wanted to do. That's why when we saw the G6-233 for $1,999 on Gateway's website, we knew that
this was all the system we would need."
Gateway was the first PC company to offer online purchasing of PCs and the website continues to grow
in popularity. Gateway's website averages more than 200,000 hits per hour with more than 2,000 users
simultaneously accessing the site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Twenty percent of phone calls to
Gateway are web-generated and over $2.1 million in web-related sales are made per day.
It sounds like GTW marketing is picking up their game.DS |
