FNS and all,
>>not a question of Supply but of current and intermediate term demand.<<
Maybe long term demand too. The actual form of the computer may be in the process of evolving. At least in the home pc market. Something to think about.
From Barron's online-
"One conference exhibitor that seems destined to make some waves is iTV Corp., a San Mateo, California firm developing an extremely low-cost box for surfing the Web and sending E-mail. Sometime next year, according to iTV President Gary Langford, the geeky former physicist who runs the company, both Sanyo and LG Electronics will introduce equipment based on chips designed by iTV, providing everything needed to connect your idiot box to the Internet, including a modem, keyboard and Web browser. The retail price: under $50. The device, according to Langford, is based on an iTV microprocessor which can be manufactured at a cost of comfortably less than $2 apiece. You read that right. A buck and change. Langford says several large catalogue retailers have been looking at the gizmo as a replacement for print catalogues. In short, they're considering sending the devices free to some regular customers, with their Web sites pre-designated as the start page, along with an opportunity for low-cost access.
Dataquest last week reported that 10.2% of U.S. households plan to purchase a personal computer in the next six months, noting that the figure has been increasing, a fact that "supports strong near-term growth in the U.S. home-PC market." The biggest drivers for new PC sales: educational use and Internet access. Until now, most people haven't given much consideration to logging on from anyplace other than a personal computer. But if you could spend $40 instead of $900 -- well, that should give consumers, Intel, Microsoft and PC makers something to think about."
irthrifty
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