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Earn a chance at the grand prize and recognition as top app developer; Gain access to millions of consumers through NETGEAR genie+ marketplace.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- May 1, 2013 -- NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR) ( www.netgear.com), a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, today launched a Million Dollar App Contest (www.netgearappcontest.com) to encourage software developers around the U.S. to create innovative apps for Connected Homes and Businesses available on the NETGEAR genie+™ marketplace (https://genie.netgear.com/). NETGEAR is looking for developers to join the 1,000+ member-strong NETGEAR Smart Network Developer Program. (http://developer.netgear.com). Participating developers will submit their most creative and original work to NETGEAR’s panel of judges. The top 3 app developers will win a trip to Las Vegas and the winner of the contest will also receive $10,000 with a chance to win the $1,000,000 40-year annuity* grand prize during the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES®). Participants will also earn revenue by monetizing their apps through the NETGEAR genie+ marketplace.

"NETGEAR is focused on changing how consumers interact with connected devices in the home to create a seamless hardware and software experience,” said Cedar Milazzo, NETGEAR’s vice president of software engineering. “With this SDK, developers can create powerful home and business apps and deliver them to millions of NETGEAR devices. Our Million Dollar App Contest is an opportunity for developers to amaze the world by building exciting new apps that create a compelling and unique experience for NETGEAR router and ReadyNAS® users, further enhancing the overall connected lifestyle of consumers.”

The registration period and the deadline for submitting apps for the NETGEAR Million Dollar App Contest ends at midnight on September 30, 2013. Developers who complete the registration requirements, whether current or new members of the Smart Network Developer Program, are eligible to participate and may submit multiple entries. Participants must be legal residents of the U.S. and over the age of 18. The Top App Developer as determined by the judges will win $10,000 and have one shot at winning the $1,000,000 40-year annuity grand prize*. All accepted apps will be featured on the NETGEAR genie+ marketplace.

Submissions may be any kind of software application developed using the NETGEAR Smart Network Software Development Kit (SDK), be it for the web, a personal computer, or a mobile handheld device. Apps can fall into a wide range of market segments, such as business productivity; gaming; health; home energy; home monitoring; media (music and video); network management; network security; storage (backup and file sharing); printing; and support for both tech and non-tech services. A judging panel of industry experts will score the apps based on criteria in five categories of equal importance: (1) ease of use; (2) features and functions; (3) originality; (4) indispensability; and (5) integration of hardware. Full contest details and official rules and restrictions are described on the NETGEAR Million Dollar App Contest website (www.netgearappcontest.com).

The top three app developers will receive a trip to Las Vegas, where the one grand prizewinner will be announced in a press conference on January 6, 2014, coinciding with the start of CES. Fifteen runners-up will also receive prizes, including NETGEAR ReadyNAS network attached storage devices or NETGEAR high performance routers.

The Smart Network and genie+ marketplace

Most home networks today are not smart enough to understand and optimize what you do, recognize the devices you connect to, or simply make whatever you do easier. The NETGEAR Smart Network is an intelligent network that enhances and adapts to individual lifestyle or business needs, personalized and customized based on the smart devices end users have (such as routers, gateways, network storage, switches, access points and more), the tasks that they want to do, and the applications they want to run.

The NETGEAR Smart Network is a first-of-its-kind platform that optimizes applications using the network, making devices easier to connect and run better and faster. With the Smart Network, NETGEAR enables application developers to take advantage of these previously under-utilized resources that are always on and always connected. Just as you customize your smartphone with apps or decide which channels you want to watch on TV, the Smart Network will revolutionize how you look at your network, to add more value.

With the evolution of genie+ marketplace, NETGEAR has opened up a world of possibilities for Smart Network developers — over 1,000 and counting — to create and monetize exciting, new apps to help you get the most out of your network. Launched last year, genie+ marketplace provides a simple way to download a variety of cutting-edge apps that can expand and customize NETGEAR routers, gateways, and network-attached storage (NAS) devices, while offering developers an end-to-end opportunity to monetize those apps. The suite of new applications includes productivity tools, media sharing applications, and a variety of other useful apps.