Blu-ray Disc Association welcomes Apple to its board

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) recently announced that Apple would become
a member of the consortium's Board of Directors. Apple has been a leader in
driving consumer adoption of DVD authoring since January 2001, with the
introduction of its SuperDrive, the industry's first high-volume CD- and DVD-burning
drive, and its revolutionary iDVD and DVD Studio Pro software applications.
Apple is also helping bring High Definition (HD) to market with a complete line
of HD content creation tools for consumers and professionals alike including
iMovie HD, Final Cut Express HD and Final Cut Pro HD editing software.

Additionally the next release of Apple's QuickTime software, QuickTime 7,
will feature the MPEG developed H.264 Advanced Video Codec (AVC) which has been
adopted for high definition DVDs. Apple will release QuickTime 7 in conjunction
with the release of Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger, the fifth major version of Mac
OS X that will ship in the first half of 2005.

"Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of
our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD," said Steve Jobs, Apple's
CEO. "Consumers are already creating stunning HD content with Apple's
leading video editing applications like iMovie HD and are anxiously awaiting a
way to burn their own DVDs."

"Apple
has a long history of technical innovation around DVD hardware and software, and
their support of the Blu-ray Disc format is a testament to their commitment of
ongoing innovation. The Blu-ray Disc format provides the immense capacity and
the revolutionary functionality that Apple's loyal customer base will be sure
to enjoy," said Maureen Weber, Chief BDA Spokesperson and GM of HP's
Optical Storage Solutions Business. "We look forward to working with HP on
the development and promotion of the Blu-ray Disc format."

BDA was created to broaden support for Blu-ray Disc-the next generation
optical disc for storing High Definition movies, photos and other digital
content. Blu-ray Discs will have five times larger capacity than today's DVDs,
with a single-layer Blu-ray Disc holding up to 25 gigabytes of data and a
double-layer Blu-ray Disc holding up to 50 gigabytes of data. Current DVDs hold
4.7 gigabytes on single-layer discs and 8.5 gigabytes on dual-layer discs.

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