Dell Negative on Demand
for PC-TVs
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Michael Dell is no fan of computers that
double as television sets, an idea
aggressively promoted by high-tech rival Compaq Computer Corp.
Dell, founder and chief executive of Dell Computer Corp., the world's
biggest direct seller of
personal computers, said Thursday that the two activities -- TV
viewing and computing -- are too
different to be combined in one room of the home.
''What it means is you get a really bad personal computer and a
not-so-good TV,'' Dell said at a
technology conference for the Society of American Business Editors
and Writers. ''A lot of the
PC-TVs don't have the resolution.''
By the year 2006, consumers will have to replace or convert their
existing analog TV sets to receive
signals from broadcasters sending cinema-quality digital television,
which can also operate as
computers.
Compaq has used that deadline to actively pursue developing a
PC-TV market, last year unveiling a
combination ''PC Theatre'' with Thomson Consumer Electronics Co.
The Houston-based company
says it sees PC-TVs as a way to spread computer wares into the
living room.
Indeed, many in the computer industry dream of turning desktop
machines into full-fledged
entertainment systems, with users doing far more than just word
processing, games and other basic
applications.
But Dell said if he personally came home and needed to send
electronic mail and his children were
watching an animated film on the PC-TV, he'd still wind up needing a
computer outside the living
room.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Computer, which deploys a direct
sales force and does nearly $13
billion in business, hasn't found a market for the product.
''Will there be a specialized market? Sure,'' Dell said about PC-TVs.
''There's a percentage of the
population that will buy just about anything |
