Packard Bell NEC, Number 5 worldwide, number 2 in the US.........
Software DVD, not ready for prime time......
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NEC SHOWS INNOVATION IN READY SERIES REFRESH: DVD MODEL WITH HARDWARE DECODING DUE SOON
Packard Bell NEC Inc.'s NEC Ready 9700 line is the biggest leap forward in PC industrial design to date.
And if history repeats itself, the new look could substantially increase sales for the PC maker. Acer America Corp.'s brash debut of green and charcoal Aspire desktops nearly doubled sales for that company in the fourth quarter of 1995. (see MMW, Jan. 29, 1996, p. 7.)
In addition to a new design, Packard Bell NEC, which ranks fifth in worldwide sales and second in U.S.sales, will support the line with a wider retail presence than NEC has ever had.
"Over the last year we've increased the number of retail accounts by 300 percent, store locations by 300 percent and shelf space by 400 percent," said Michael DeNeffe, director of product marketing for the NEC Ready line. "We want to keep the momentum going."
The NEC system takes IBM Corp.'s [IBM] split-system S series PC (see MMW, Sept. 30, 1996, p. 1) a step further by putting the CD-ROM or DVD drive and floppy drive in a detachable, shoebox-size media control unit with LCD display and infrared capability. The unit can sit within 6 ft. of the minitower and, unlike the Aptiva, doesn't mandate that users connect it to a particular monitor. The S series media control unit is designed to sit directly under a particular IBM monitor. The NEC model also takes up less space than the IBM. The S series is about 3 inches taller and 3 inches wider.
NEC went through an 18-month design process involving two design firms to get the Ready series just right. Unlike Acer, NEC plans to back up its new look with top-of-the-line components.
"We had the benefit of kind of living through it [the S series] with them," DeNeffe said. "What consumers didn't like with the Aptiva (was) there wasn't much flexibility."
NEC originally contracted with frogdesign Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., the firm responsible for Acer's successful Aspire line. The Ready product went through a mid-life redesign by Ziba Design of Portland, which made improvements to the LCD screen and media control unit. Thanks to Ziba's work, when the media control unit is removed from the minitower a drawer can be inserted that stores CD-ROMs and other media. The company used a third design firm, IDEO Product Development of Palo Alto, Calif., for the monitor, which has two high-end Labtec speakers built in to the bottom so as not to add any width to the unit.
Wireless Web and DVD
The Ready PC emphasizes wireless technology and DVD. NEC is shipping an NEC Internet Antenna, which receives AirMedia Live! wireless Internet service. (see MMW, Feb. 5, 1996, p.1) NEC is offering buyers two months of the service free. To fully leverage the technology, the PC is designed so the LCD can display stock prices, sports scores and other data received by the antenna.
On the DVD front, DeNeffe said the company expects to use Hitachi America Ltd.'s double-speed drive and definitely will include Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.'s [DIMD] MPEG-2 and AC-3 decoding board. NEC considered software decoding but decided against it rather than risk inferior playback.
"We've had some nightmarish experiences with MPEG-2 done in software," DeNeffe said. It's just not ready for prime time."
Despite the "expensive hardware baggage" associated with DVD, NEC is giving its top end model an aggressive $2,999 price.
To keep the cost down, the company decided not to bundle any titles.
"ISVs wanted five or six times the cost of a CD-ROM, and we didn't want to spend the extra money because it adds to the cost of good," DeNeff said. "We kind of punted with DVD-ROM software." (Packard Bell NEC, 415/528-6000.)
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