For those who think there is no need for buying new PC's, I have a P-166 here and a P-100 at work, and NEITHER is fast enough. Half of the machines in our dept. are 486 DX2/66's, and my employer is much MORE up-to-date than average. There is a TREMENDOUS upgrade cycle going on, half of the installed base is 486's and earlier, and at the current and soon-to-be-lower prices of PII's and other advanced systems, believe me, upgrades ARE being planned for this year in large numbers.
That, however, only impacts units, not sales (e.g. dollars), which have taken a hit. I do expect the high-margin server chips, and Merced next year, to address the margin and total sales issues and turn Intel into a $50B company in 2-3 years. But 1998 could be rough. |
