Computer sales slump, only 23% on line.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Personal computer makers have slashed prices and introduced a range of lower cost products in an effort to lure new buyers, but so far, consumers don't appear to be taking the bait, a new study shows. Of those buying a home computer in the past six months, only 35 percent were first time buyers, up from 32 percent in the similar period ending January 1997, but down from 49 percent in both January 1996 and January 1995....
"PC manufacturers and retailers ... were certain that lowering prices would create a stampede of first-time buyers," said Nick Donatiello, president of Odyssey, said in a statement. "(PC makers) thought that it (price cuts) would put a kink in the growth curve, that we were going to see much greater penetration as a result of the reduction in price," Donatiello said in an interview. "It didn't happen."
Twenty-three percent of U.S. households are now online, up from 17 percent a year ago, the study showed.
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No wonder that Gates and Compaq have the TV viewer squarely in their gun sights. With new-user, PC demand dropping and only a 23% Internet market penetration, the TV viewer is the only new blood in town. Contrarily, the nation's broadcasters and the CE companies have no reason to allow the PC industry into their closed game. |
