To: Gary Korn who wrote (27517 ) 12/11/1997 6:44:00 AM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to
PCs now in 43 pct of U.S. homes-Dataquest
Reuters Story - December 11, 1997 00:06
%US %DPR %BUS %ELI CPQ DELL HWP IBM V%REUTER P%RTR
SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec 11 (Reuters) - Some 43 percent of U.S.
households now have a personal computer, up from 35 percent a
year ago, a new survey by Dataquest shows.
Data also showed 10.2 percent plan to buy a PC in the next
six months, according to the survey, to be published on
Thursday.
The advent of PCs priced at under $1,000 has been a driving
force to the strength of the market, according to the market
research firm, based in San Jose, California.
The trend has affected most of the large U.S. personal
computer makers, including Compaq Computer Corp. , Dell
Computer , Hewlett-Packard Co. and International
Business Machines Corp.
The survey showed the number of U.S. households who intend
to buy a personal computer was also sharply up from the survey
the firm conducted one year ago, Dataquest said.
"There has been a strong shift in PC purchase intention to
the near term," Van Baker, Dataquest's director of consumer
research, said in a statement prepared for Thursday's release.
"This supports strong near-term growth in the U.S. home
market," he added.
Scott Miller, senior industry analyst for Dataquest's
Personal Computer Worldwide program, said "The pricing dynamics
in the U.S. consumer PC market have clearly increased purchase
intent."
Miller said few PCs purchased by consumers currently are
priced above $2,000.
Interest in computers has also been sparked by the growing
availability of information and services on the Internet.
Baker told Reuters that currently one in five people
surveyed gave site access to the Internet as the reason they are
buying a new computer, up fourfold from previous years.
-- Palo Alto newsroom, +1 650 846 5400
