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Steve, You are right about NEC. When Fujitsu came in and sold pcs at
30 percent below cost, that ate their lunch in the Japanese market.
Hitachi did the same with portables, but Toshiba fought back well. NEC
simply gave up its number 1 spot. I agree that there are many
applications that will not run on a $500 box. However, about 95
percent of what a pc does in business is typing, arithmetic, and
database work. All of this can be done by a $500 box, better than by
the more expensive boxes. I have never seen a business with pc use
maxed out, unless you are counting all the account execs who are
playing "Doom" when their bosses aren't looking. The trouble with
pcs is that they are 1. Overpriced and too costly to operate at an
average of $13,000 per year. 2. Not very usable, with too much crapola
on the box making the important functions harder to access and slower
to operate. 3. Not as useful as they should be, with a lot of the
software designed by people who don't understand the needs of the users.
That is why the pc has been one of the least productive capital
investments in business. As Landauer says, we see the pc everywhere
except in the productivity #s. The productivity #s
will get better, but not until the
pc is more specialized and geared for its needs.
Actually, so far, the leader in the
business computer price cutting game has been Dell. But Compaq is
following their lead well. Blood will flow. MB |
