Once again don't have a link for this fine article from email news service. It brightens up my Christmas & I hope it does the same for yours.
Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night!
Night Writer
Subj: CI Research Reveals Holiday Surprises In Retail PC...
Date: 97-12-24 11:02:52 EST
CI Research Reveals Holiday Surprises In Retail PC Sales; Compaq Still Dominates Sub-$1,000 Market; HP Takes High-End Lead from IBM
LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 23, 1997--For the 1997
holiday season, the time of year when computer manufacturers battle
for the consumer market, Computer Intelligence (CI), the leading
source of fact-based information about the computer and
communications industries, has documented a huge rise in retail
sub-$1,000 desktop PCs and the emergence of a viable retail notebook
product set. CI's data for the holiday season to date is drawn from
its StoreBoard Monthly Channel Survey, which tracks technology sales
through PC Superstores, Consumer Electronics Stores and Office
Products Superstores.
In January 1997, CI noted that sub-$1,000 desktops made up less
than 9 percent of the retail desktop market--the latest CI numbers
indicate that this segment of retail desktops has now grown to 36
percent of the market, by far the largest price group. CI's data shows
a similar situation for the retail notebook market. At first a nascent
market composed mainly of close-outs, this segment is now booming,
with products specifically designed to meet key consumer price and
feature points. The hottest category is the three-spindle (hard disk,
CD-ROM drive and floppy disk drive) notebook priced between $1,500 and
$2,000.
According to CI, these are the winning--and losing--PC makers
in the fourth quarter:
*T
Category Who's Hot Who's Not
Low-cost PCs Compaq Acer
High-end PCs Hewlett-Packard IBM
Alternatives to
the Mainstream Gateway 2000 Apple
Notebooks Compaq Toshiba
*T
Low Cost PCs
In the low-cost PC market, while Packard Bell and Acer have
always been the leaders, they had benefited from an apparent lack of
interest in this segment from many of the larger PC makers, such as
Compaq and IBM. This situation changed in 1997 when Compaq took an
aggressive position with a sub-$1,000 offering that opened up this
market for the first time. CI's data demonstrates that sub-$1,000 PCs
quickly accounted for one-third of the retail desktop market, and
Compaq was the vendor primarily driving the increased volume.
"Compaq's market share in the sub-$1,000 market rose as high as
70 percent in August, and in October Compaq still controlled just over
50 percent," said Matt Sargent, Industry Analyst at Computer
Intelligence. "Packard Bell is rebounding strongly of late, but Acer
has been left in the dust. The dark horse is Hewlett-Packard. While
many figured HP wouldn't be aggressive on price, they're now third and
poised to climb higher."
High-end PCs
The IBM Aptiva had carved out a successful niche in 1996 within
the high-end portion of the retail desktop market, and CI's research
shows that it held onto the Number Three overall retail desktop
position behind Compaq and Packard Bell, with HP trailing. In 1997, CI
research documents a significant change, and the Aptiva group has
fallen from grace within IBM.
"IBM did not maintain the pace of innovation that is necessary
for success in the high-end consumer market and has lost its position
to HP," said CI Senior Industry Analyst Dave Tremblay. "HP has used a
broader product lineup, better price, and faster innovation to lock up
the Number Three position in overall retail desktop sales, and now
appears to be the vendor of choice within the high-end market."
Alternatives to the Mainstream
In the past, someone who did not follow the crowd would have most
likely purchased an Apple Macintosh. CI's research shows that the top
alternative PC vendor today is Gateway 2000, the direct mail PC maker
out of South Dakota. In the 3Q 1997 edition of CI's Trendata study,
which interviews 50,000 households per quarter, Gateway 2000 tied with
Packard Bell as the second most popular vendor among U.S. households
purchasing PCs (Compaq was the first choice).
"Consumers had for a long time been wary of purchasing technology
through the mail, but this seems to be changing quickly," said Mark
Nelson, General Manager of CI's Consumer Research Group. "Our data
suggests that the most knowledgeable buyers now purchase through
direct mail companies and prefer to have the 'inside' track in the PC
purchasing process, rather than work through a middleman whose PC
business may be a small part of his overall business. This new
situation has enabled Gateway 2000 and other direct vendors to become
the primary choice of the smart alternative buyer."
Notebooks
Until the fall of 1997, the local computer retailer's choices in
notebook computers were typically Toshiba, Toshiba, and Toshiba.
Toshiba had the best prices, supply, and reseller relationships, all
of which caused them to lead the retail notebook market from its
inception in 1994, as CI's data has detailed, through the summer of
1997. This dominance ended in September when Compaq took over the top
position in retail notebooks. Compaq's Presario notebooks are priced
lower, have newer technology, and are more focused toward the consumer
user.
Computer Intelligence, a division of Ziff-Davis Inc., is the
leading source of fact-based information for the computer and
communications industries. CI's extensive research capabilities
provide a wide variety of products and services that help computer and
communications companies sell and market more effectively. All of the
company's products and services are based on proprietary information
databases built and maintained by CI specialists.
Headquartered in La Jolla, Computer Intelligence has U.S. offices
in Cambridge, Mass., Farmington and Norwalk, Conn.; Sunnyvale, Calif.;
and Dallas, Texas. CI's European headquarters are in Paris, with sales
offices in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, and sales agents in
Belgium and Switzerland. Samples of CI's extensive market data and
research results, timely commentary from industry authorities and
previews of upcoming technology events are available on the company's
World Wide Web site, www.ci.zd.com .
Ziff-Davis, a Softbank company, is high tech's only integrated
media and marketing company. Ziff-Davis content attracts the largest
audience of business technology buyers and techno-savvy consumers in
the United States, and ZD-branded content is the trusted source of
information about computing and the Internet in more than 100 other
countries around the world. Ziff-Davis enables marketers to identify,
reach and retain this audience through an integrated system of
research, events, print, Internet, television, and education.
--30--cd/bos
CONTACT:
Rogers Communications
Judith Vanderkay or Lauren Muckian, 781/224-1100
jvanderkay@rogerscom.com; lmuckian@rogerscom.com
Computer Intelligence
Glenn Grant, 800/880-0973
ggrant@zd.com |
