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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Big Bucks who wrote (17608)	3/12/1998 12:11:00 PM
From: David Rosenthal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Big, I agree that new computers will come out with Win98. They have to because of USB and other new technologies. However, this is replacing existing sales of Win95 so does not translate into additional revenue for Microsoft. This additional revenue must come from the upgrade market. Currently, I don't see what is going to make this a significant market. I was directly addressing the issue of an upgrade market and the impact on semi-equip demand. I have heard the argument that Win98 will drive semi-equips because of resource requirements. The machines being sold today have the bigger hard disks and the additional memory needed to run Win98 already. You would need a lot of Win98 upgrade sales or Win98 pushing people to buy new machines for Win98 to impact the semi-equips. And I haven't seen a compelling argument for consumers to do this. There are two flavors of NT: server and workstation. Last I heard Win98 is the end of the line for the Win series. The next big OS upgrade to generate revenue for Microsoft is from Win95/98 to NT and I think there will be a big push for this with the release of the next version of NT this summer for businesses. NT has significant stability advantages, performance and centralized network management that will appeal to businesses. Consumers are probably slotted for the next version of NT after this one. They are adding in the features to NT that will make NT's undistinguishable from Win95/98 but faster and more stable. Dave

To: Big Bucks who wrote (17608)	3/12/1998 8:42:00 PM
From: SMALL FRY	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

BB, IMHO...everytime MSFT upgrades their OS/Win and follow on apps...it's always better, more capable...yet, a lot bulkier and juuust noticeably slower when run on current hardware. Thus the consumer (PC "hobbyists", Gamers, Power Users, etc.), opts for more power to restore the relative speed of their old PC, deemed "obsolete". Will Win98 generate another round of hardware upgrades?... I think that's the question. Will Gates again duplicate Greenspan's feat? Just my two, SF