MENLO PARK, Calif. - January 18, 2000- Be Incorporated (Nasdaq: BEOS) today 
announced that it is shifting its resources to focus primarily on the growing 
Internet appliance market. In order to maximize the visibility and acceptance 
of Be technology, the upcoming version 5 of the BeOS desktop operating system 
will be available for personal use at no charge beginning later in the first 
quarter of 2000. At that time, individuals who register with Be at 
http://free.be.com/ will be able to download BeOS 5 for free. Be also intends 
to work with publishers and other partners to make commercial versions of 
BeOS 5 available through retail channels. 

"The post-PC revolution of Internet appliances has started," said Jean-Louis 
Gassée, chairman and chief executive officer of Be. "Our customers and 
partners, such as Compaq, National Semiconductor, RealNetworks and Qubit, have 
validated our belief that Be is well positioned to play an important role in 
this emerging market. We want to do everything in our power to make the best 
use of this opportunity. Making the free version of BeOS 5 available through 
the Internet and other channels allows us to aggressively promote our 
technology, maximize our visibility and obtain valuable market feedback while 
aggressively pursuing Internet appliance opportunities." 

As a result of this shift in resources and offering BeOS 5 for free, Be will 
not realize the revenues previously anticipated from sales of the desktop 
version of its operating system. First Call's consensus estimate of revenues 
for the year 2000 has been approximately $16,000,000. Analysts estimated that 
desktop sales for 2000 would account for approximately 85 percent of revenues. 
This shift will negatively impact future revenues as well. 

Be's product for the Internet appliance market is code-named Stinger, a 
software solution for appliances that deliver information and entertainment 
over the web. Based on BeOS, Stinger is fully customizable, offers a complete 
browser and supports popular streaming audio and video standards. 

BeOS 5 is the newest version of BeOS, an alternative desktop operating system 
designed to deliver the most satisfying experience possible on a personal 
computer. BeOS provides a high-performance and robust platform for all 
applications, excelling in the areas of audio and video manipulation. Users 
will be able to download BeOS 5 via a Web browser and store it as a file 
within their existing operating system (such as Windows). No repartitioning 
will be necessary, and launching BeOS 5 will be as simple as double-clicking 
an icon on the desktop.