Seagate Wins Two 2006 Dice Awards: For Best Channel Programs and External Storage Products

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., May 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Strengthening its position in digital storage for the home and small offices, Seagate Technology today won two of Digital Connect Magazine's inaugural Digital Integration Channel Excellence (DICE) awards: for best channel partner programs and technologies as well as top honors for its branded external storage products. Seagate was the only hard drive company to win a DICE award in this survey of 250 North American system builders who rated computer vendors in 13 product and service categories ranging from wireless networking and flat panel televisions to PC security and storage.

"We commend Seagate and other leading vendors recognized as DICE winners," said Keith Newman, chief strategist for Digital Connect, which targets readers who install and integrate high-end automation systems and applications in their homes and offices. "These companies are recognized as the best by digital integrators who recommend them to their customers."

Digital Connect's DICE award recognizes companies that consistently promote and execute premier channel partner programs and technologies in the digital and home integrator marketplace.

"It's recognition like this that reflects Seagate's strong commitment to providing our channel partners with the products and programs they need to deliver powerful systems that efficiently move, manage and store growing volumes of digital content," said Jeff Loebbaka, senior vice president of Global Channel Sales and Corporate Marketing at Seagate. "And our branded external solutions are designed to meet the growing demand for storage that provides the highest levels of performance, capacity and reliability in the digital home and small business, where consumers are storing more and more movies, computer games, photos, files and other digital content."

Seagate won the overall channel award based on system builder assessments of channel program technical support, margins and profitability, responsiveness and service revenue opportunities.

Seagate's flagship Seagate Partner Program (SPP) gives system builders and resellers channel programs and tools to expand their server, desktop PC and notebook business. The program provides national, regional and local whitebox and whitebook system builders with the technical expertise and marketing resources to help expand their customer base, accelerate time-to-market and increase profits with best-in-class hard drives and programs. More information about SPP is available at http://spp.seagate.com/.

Seagate's external storage products range from the subminiature 5GB Pocket Drive to the ultrahigh capacity 750GB Pushbutton Backup Drive. Seagate also offers specialized digital content solutions such as the 160GB Portable Drive with backup software and the revolutionary Seagate Mirra Personal Server -- the world's first easy-to-use personal server providing continuous protection, secure sharing, file synchronization and remote access to all networked computers. Seagate is committed to developing wonderful new experiences for creating, sharing and enjoying digital content.

About Digital Connect Magazine

Digital Connect Magazine is for solution providers engaged in the digital home and SOHO networking markets. Digital Connect provides a unique editorial perspective uniting IT and consumer electronics products to create innovative applications in the home and small office. Solution providers and integrators turn to Digital Connect for technology updates and related channel programs to enhance their business models and go-to-market strategies. http://www.digitalconnectmag.com/

About CMP Technology

CMP Technology is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. http://www.cmp.com/

About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, and Consumer Electronics applications. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at http://www.seagate.com/.

NOTE: Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC.