Fair enough Khris, Let me try and use your analogy for a minute though...Instead of comparing Intel to a sunroof or a seatbelt company, I would say it more closely represents the entire engine. Not only the engine but some of the highways, traffic lights and bridges to boot!
Let's say the manufacturing of cars took a different route and we had one company which made 90% of the engines.
Wouldn't you expect that engine manufacture to advertise and try and create greater demand for the overral industry?
Your point regarding brand identity is valid though, but why can't the marketing effort do both? Create brand identity along with stimulate demand?
Now before I start sounding like Fuchi, :-) here's an interesting article...
Michael
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PCs Keep Edging Farther Into the Social Mainstream
By DWIGHT SILVERMAN
c.1998 Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON -- For years, Margot Curry resisted buying a personal computer. She just didn't see the need.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿBut that changed with the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''I kept hearing more and more about the Internet,'' said the 42-year-old bookkeeper. ''Every time I turned on the TV, everything had a dot-dot-com on it. Randall's (Food Markets) had a dot-dot-com, J.C. Penney had a dot-dot-com. Even my doctor got a dot-dot-com.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''I felt almost like I was forced into getting a computer,'' she said. ''It was like, if you are not on the Internet, you are not in the real world.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿCurry ''scraped and borrowed'' and three months ago bought one of the new, powerful computers available for less than $1,000.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿHer life has changed.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''Now, every time I want to do something, instead of calling first, I go to the Internet,'' she said. ''My friend and I were thinking about going to Las Vegas, and we looked it up first on the Internet. Whenever I need a recipe, I go to the Internet.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿCurry has discovered what more than 40 percent of all U.S. households have found - that personal computers, and particularly those linked to the Internet, are no longer a curiosity. They've moved into the mainstream, becoming an integral part of people's everyday lives.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿPeople still write letters, but for those who are connected to the Net, it's more apt to be by e-mail than on stationery. Going to the library now means sitting down at the keyboard rather than driving across town.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿAnd you can buy everything from the latest John Grisham bestseller to a new automobile with a few clicks of a mouse.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿNews comes quicker to those who have a PC and Internet access, from the latest on the White House sex allegations to constantly updated statistics during a National Basketball Association game.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿWant to hunt for great mortgage rates? Do it on line. Need information about a childhood disease? It's there on the Net. Got some time to kill? Hey, there's always Solitaire ... or the free, shareware version of Quake, downloaded from the Web.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿIndustry observers say there are three key reasons for the movement of the PC into the social mainstream: the plummeting price of a powerful home computer, the increasing sense that the machines are more than flashy toys and the allure of the Internet.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''We are still seeing the price of a great computer come further down - right now you can get a complete PC for under $1,000 - and the value of using that PC is increasing,'' said Jeff Sanderson, general manager for Microsoft Corp.'s Interactive Media Group.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿAt the end of last year, 43 percent of all U.S. homes had a personal computer, up from 35 percent a year ago. Another 10 percent of households planned to buy a PC in the next six months.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿAn estimated 62 million people in the United States accessed the Internet in all its forms in the fourth quarter of 1997, up from 46.8 million a year earlier, according to a recent study by IntelliQuest, a market rese'' Sanderson said.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿPersonal Web pages and e-mail, in particular, have become a powerful glue for many far-flung families, said Jerry Michalski, managing editor for Release 1.0, an influential computer industry newsletter. ''People form lasting attachments using e-mail. They connect with relatives and friends they haven't seen for years.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿDave Berman lives in Olney, Md., a Washington suburb, but has relatives living in other cities. When his wife, Karen, learned she was pregnant in 1996 with twins, it set off a flood of interest.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''Our family started calling all the time, asking how she was doing and how she was feeling,'' Berman, 32, said. ''All these people wanted to know what was going on.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿBerman, who works for a bank, had become an avid Web surfer and decided to marry his newfound hobby with his impending fatherhood. He created a Web site at members.aol.com/bermandog/bermando.htm that kept his relatives - and anyone else who stumbled across it - updated on his wife's condition.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿWhen his children were born in January 1997 - a boy and a girl, Abigail and Sam - he continued to update the site, turning it into an ongoing family album.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿNearly everyone who regularly uses e-mail has had the experience of getting a message from someone in their past. On-line phone books and e-mail directories make it easy for old friends and lovers to find on another.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿBut not everyone wants to be found.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿA Dallas woman, who asked that her name not be used, said she left California in the early 1990s partly to get away from an abusive relationship. The man she was going to marry became violent when they broke up and continued to stalk and threaten her.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''After almost five years, I'd pretty much forgotten about him,'' she said.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿThen, last summer, she received a message from him. He had found her e-mail address after she posted several messages in Usenet news groups, a collection of about 35,000 Internet discussion forums. She used an unusual nickname that he recognized.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿShe quickly changed Internet providers, along with her phone number.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''And I stay out of Usenet, which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the discussions in there.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿAfter years of talk of its potential, Internet shopping took off last Christmas, with estimated fourth-quarter sales of about $1 billion.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿBetween 10 and 20 percent of those with Internet access have purchased something on line, and a much larger percentage - as much as 90 percent, according to some studies - have used the Net to research a purchase later made in the 3-D world, said Donna Hoffman, an associate professor of management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿInternational Data Corp., a market research firm, estimates that by 2001 electronic commerce will total $220 billion.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿThose projections were impressive enough to give Egghead, the national chain of software stores, a second chance at life.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿCaught flat-footed by the shift in the computer retail business to giant superstores, Egghead's executives watched as its sales flattened and losses mounted. Once considered a pioneer in the selling of software, the company suffered five consecutive quarters with losses.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''When I arrived at Egghead in September 1996, it was my wish to create alternatives for this company,'' said George Orban, Egghead's chief executive.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿOrban cut the number of retail stores by half, and bought an on-line catalog that sold clearance computer items. Called Surplus Direct, it became the cornerstone for Egghead's growing Web-based presence.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ''We had a number of missed opportunities,'' Orban said. ''This latest one, Internet commerce, would not be one where Egghead would cede its position.''
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿIn January, Egghead announced it was closing all of its stores to become an on-line-only operation. Orban is betting the store - literally - on its Web business, which now is generating just 12 percent of its revenues.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿThe company will change its name to Egghead.com to hammer home the difference.
ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿEgghead has told its investors to expect two more years of losses before the company turns the corner. But the growth of Internet commerce ''is just too great to ignore,'' Orban said.
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