Micro D Given Distribution Exclusive in U.S. for 7 Apple Software Products : SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

Micro D of Santa Ana will become the exclusive U.S. distributor of seven Apple Computer software products under an agreement signed with an Apple subsidiary.

Industry trade publications speculated that the contract could boost Micro D’s annual revenues by some $20 million. Although officials of the Santa Ana firm declined to disclose the contract’s value, they acknowledged that the $20-million figure was not unreasonable.

Micro D had annual revenues of $290 million last year.

Micro D’s agreement with Claris Corp., an Apple unit based in Mountain View, is a first for Apple, which has not previously used a distributor for its products. Apple computers and software have been sold through the Cupertino-based company’s direct sales force.

Claris’ products include MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, AppleWorks, SmartForm Designer and SmartForm Manager.

In another development for the Santa Ana firm, Oracle Corp., a Belmont business software company, has chosen Micro D as its exclusive retail distributor in the United States. Oracle markets software products used to manipulate and manage business data.

Micro D is the largest nationwide distributor of microcomputer hardware and software products for IBM and Apple computers.