LOS ANGELES, April 5, 2000, 12:45 Pacific -- In a standing-room only press event packed with media from around the world, scheduled immediately after AOL Chairman Steve Case's opening-morning keynote, AOL/Netscape announced its Netscape 6 "preview 1 release" based on an all-new open-source browser engine it calls "Gecko." The company also provided further details of its partnership with Gateway, showing for the first time several new Internet devices it will co-market, beginning this Christmans season.

"Netscape will lead the way into the next chapter of the Internet," said AOL executive Barry Schuler. The new browser, based on "all-new code from scratch," provides virtually instant page rendering, features a special "MySidebar" function with many new content partners, includes a more powerful search function, and allows the checking of multiple email accounts at once, including AOL mail.

Announcing that the new browser is today available for download, Jim Martin, Senior VP/GM of Netscape, said the preview release of Netscape 6 provides new power, speed, and customization features, and is "focused on cross-platform and cross-device compatibility." It is available immediately for the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

Saying that Netscape 6 is ideal for a new class of devices and appliances, especially those that run Linux, AOL's Barry Schuler then described his company's partnership with Gateway. He said that consumers are now demanding always-on access, ease of use with "mail right now," and are living lives that increasingly "have less distinction between work and home time."

Peter Ashkin, Gateway's CTO, displayed three new devices, which will retail for under $500 beginning later this year. The devices included a "Kitchen Countertop Applicance" with an LCD screen and a wireless keyboard, which mounts under a cabinet or sits on a countertop; an "Internet Pad" that weighs less than three pounds and operates as a "local area wireless" device similar to a cordless phone; and a "General-Purpose Countertop Appliance," which looked remarkably similar in shape and form factor to Apple's iMac (though smaller), featuring a traditional keyboard and mouse.

"The Internet is at an important juncture," Schuler's said in closing comments. This new release, he said, "will put Netscape back on the cutting edge."

Asked by a reporter later if he feels vindicated now by the recent judge's ruling in the Microsoft anti-trust case, Schuler said "We're keeping our mouths shut. But we're basking a little bit now in the glow of this significant product announcement."

"We've been quiet for a long time," he continued. "But beginning in about two weeks," Schuler said, "we will launch Netscape's most significant advertising and marketing program ever." The effort will begin with a branding campaign using both print and TV.

In an interview immediately following the press conference, Lynn Carpenter, Netscape VP of marketing, told me that the new campaign is being developed with two new outside agencies, both in LA -- Three-Ring Circus, for the TV campaign (:15 spots, to run mostly on cable); and Entropy, which is developing the print campaign (four-color pages to run in a variety of consumer, business, and trade pubs).