Pentium II lacks killer software
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
April 16, 1998, 1:15 p.m. PT
news analysis Complex, data-heavy Web sites and business
applications that only the fastest desktop computers can
process are scarce, but these are exactly what Intel needs to
drive sales of its Pentium II chip.
At the moment, few business applications require consumers
to graduate from low-end Pentium MMX computers to
Pentium II systems.
Intel, Microsoft, and other members of the computing industry
are trying to persuade
companies to write this kind
of "killer" business software,
but analysts say the mass
popularity of power-hungry
applications may be a long
time coming.
The quest for heavy-duty applications does not spring from a
desire to annoy customers. Rather, it's part of the high tech
industry's most pressing problem: Without the need for
high-end systems, prices and margins will remain low,
according to various analysts and computer executives.
And, until that changes,
computer vendors will
likely continue to beat
each other up in the
low-cost segment of the
market.
Most users' need for additional speed was met a long time
ago, when Intel introduced the 166-MHz Pentium MMX
processor, said Kimball Brown, an analyst at Dataquest, a
marketing research firm. Brown maintains that anything faster
than this relatively low-end chip is overkill for the vast
majority of buyers running standard business applications |
