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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuck Williams who wrote (20621)	3/8/1998 2:26:00 AM
From: WeisbrichA	Respond to of 97611

CW, I agree with that. We have customers who have had the same (PC) Unix based systems for 7+ years. When you get into Wintel environment, the technology cycle takes over. It keeps getting shorter and shorter. Your 3 year cycle may even be short given that INTC releases a new processor every 18? months now. There are some who would suggest that INTC is pushing technology too fast and want a big trash heap of old PC's every year. They don't want to sell just new, they want to replace too. A friend who owns a small company got a new system from a VAR in August. He asked me about the system he bought to replace most of his old hardware and all application software. It was a DEC Prioris? server with a Pentium, not a PPro or PII processor. He had heard that PIIs were now available and why didn't his system have one. He wanted to know if he was buying obsolete equipment. I told him, yes technology wise, but performance wise the system was quite capable of handling his 26 terminals a lot better that the 486/66 it replaced. He kept his first system for 6 years. (We did one O/S upgrade for him from Xenix to SCO 3.2V4). He will keep this system for at least 5 years. He also has an old Mercedes Diesel with 245K on it. The point is that Wintel systems and companies involved tend to push newer technology harder. Three years is an awful short time to start replacing systems. It is almost like a feeding frenzy with most everything purchased for general business applications is way over powered already. Since you lease equipment, you are not concerned with depreciation guidelines from IRS and/or FASB. Those who buy PCs have a real dilemma.. a much shorter technology cycle than the depreciation cycle. Thanks RW