Market Research Shows 7 Out of 10 Users Prefer Thin Clients over PCs for Everyday Business Tasks

Independent Blind "Taste Test" Challenges Common Perceptions as Vast Majority of Users Choose Wyse® Winterm™ Thin Clients Over PC Desktops

San Jose, CA – 2004/10/18 - Wyse Technology, the domain experts in server-centric computing (SCC), announced today the revealing results of the world's first independent research comparing the user's experience of a thin client versus a PC. In a blind "taste test" in which devices were hidden from the user and the two desktop environments were identical, seven out of ten candidates who expressed a preference favored the thin client over the PC. Twice as many candidates thought the thin client was the faster desktop in comparison with the PC.

"The results of the research are compelling and point to the increasing attraction of thin clients to the users of the devices," said Mike DeNeffe, senior director of the Wyse Winterm line. "The resulting report from the study provides further evidence that thin clients are increasingly in favor with traditional PC users."

Additional findings included:

• 72 percent said that the thin client allowed them to start on tasks from boot-up more quickly than on the PC.
• 55 percent rated the thin client faster at performing business tasks than the PC.

"People traditionally presume that PCs provide a better user experience than thin clients," said Bob O'Donnell, director of personal technology at IDC. "The healthy growth numbers that we'll be seeing in the thin client shipments over the next several years can be attributed not only to the IT management benefits of thin client computing, but to increasing end-user preferences as well."

The research involved 110 survey participants who conducted a set of everyday business tasks using Microsoft® Office on both a Wyse Winterm thin client and an average business PC. After carrying out the test on both machines, the candidates were asked which device was faster to use and which one they would prefer as their desktop.

The test was conducted by Winmark, an independent, London-based market research consultancy specializing in IT product testing and market research, in accordance with the British Market Research Society code of conduct.

The test involved a Wyse Winterm 1125SE thin client, an entry-level device in the Winterm line, connected to a Citrix® Metaframe® server running Microsoft Office 2000. The server was powered by a single processor 2.4GHz Intel® Zeon® loaded with 11 active users running Office applications. The PC ran Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Microsoft Office 2000. It was powered by a 1.3GHz AMD® Duron® and included a fast 100ATA 7200RPM hard disk and an Nvidia® Gforce® graphics card. Both the PC and Citrix server were attached to the same Microsoft Exchange server to keep a level playing field.

Associate Director of Research at Winmark, Graham Brown, commented, "A lot of effort was put into keeping this a representative and fair comparison and the research was conducted to the highest standards. This included a technical design that kept a level playing field at all times. The desktops were swapped half way through the two day test and the PC and thin client were kept well hidden. We carried out the test with 110 men and women making it statistically robust. What we can clearly see is that 60.9 percent of people preferred the thin client, 26.4 percent the PC and 12.7 percent had no preference. That means seven out of 10 people (69.8 percent) who expressed a preference preferred the thin client. This is significant at the 99.9 percent confidence level."

The full report will be available for download at www.wyse.cn/resources/whitepapers.

About Winmark

Winmark, based in London, England, is a full service market research consultancy providing research solutions for clients in the Information & Communications Technology sector. Typical Winmark projects include product testing, market research, new product development and client satisfaction surveys.

Winmark clients include Canon, RSA Security, BMC Software, Omnetica and the British Institution of Electrical Engineers.

All Winmark projects are managed by a senior member of staff, all of whom are members of the British Market Research Society. Visit www.winmark.co.uk for more information.

关于Wyse Technology

WYSE创建于美国硅谷，是全球最知名的智能网络计算解决方案供应商之一。连续8年蝉联全球智能网络应用终端市场占有率第一，占全球市场份额的38％。WYSE提供的硬件、软件和服务为用户提供了可中央控制的系统来协调运算资源、应用软件资源、储存资源以提高性能，在确保系统安全、可靠、灵活的同时，降低了总体拥有成本，并且将IT部门从不必要的支持和维护工作中解放出来，大大提高了生产力。多年来，WYSE深受全球众多知名商业及公共机构的信赖，主要应用智能网络应用终端的产业包括金融、电信、广播传媒、零售、运输、政府、医疗、国防、旅游、能源、教育等行业，WYSE的客户主要是行业领先的全球化公司，财富全球排名前100名中有超过四成已经成为WYSE的客户。

从2005年初起，WYSE开始大规模发展针对新一代网络计算终端的软件和系统开发。并在中国和印度大力投资技术研究与开发中心，加速新产品开发和推出结合本地客户要求的客户化解决方案。

WYSE的全球总部位于美国硅谷，分支机构遍布世界各地。亚太区总部设在中国北京海淀区融科资讯中心大厦，下辖六个分公司，分别位于中国台湾、日本东京、韩国首尔、印度班加罗尔、澳大利亚悉尼和新加坡。