Okay, I understand your point.
I was just implying that if a large segment of the market feels the same way, this may be the "problem" for INTC.
I somewhat agree, although I've always felt that since people use machines for different purposes, some people/companies will take longer to upgrade than others, providing a more or less steady stream of upgrading customers. In March of 1996, the WSJ printed an article discussing this upgrade question. In it, the IT manager of Duracell (the battery co., later bought out by Gillette) was quoted as saying "our company PC's are all 486's, they still do the job fine, and we have no plans of upgrading". This was after I bought my P100. Now I would be truly shocked if the Duracell division of Gillette had still not upgraded, to something like P150s or P166s or P200's. That's a whole range that I will skip, as I will probably go with a PII 233 or P233MMX, minimum.
I only in the last 2 months finally convinced a client of mine to replace their 486 DX2 (66MHz) to a P200MMX. So, there is a fairly steady stream of buyers, I think. Anyone still running a 486 by the end of 1997 is simply not using their computer for anything but the very lightest tasks, and simply has no desire to run modern application software.
DK |