Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fabeyes who wrote (37763)	8/23/1998 10:17:00 PM
From: Fabeyes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53903

don't know where I have been, but just saw this IBM reported ready to unveil new high-performance consumer PC REUTERS NEW YORK, Aug 20 -IBM aims to upset the sleepy conformity of the consumer personal computer industry next week when it unveils a screaming-fast machine designed to stir excitement among power-hungry PC users, industry sources said. Is there a market for expensive, souped-up PCs? THE SLEEK, BLACK PC, code-named "Cobra," will run on the new Pentium II 450 megahertz chip that Intel Corp. is set to introduce on Monday, and will come with 128 megabytes of computer memory and a 16.8 gigabyte hard disk. The new machine will carry a list price of slightly more than $2,000 for a full-power machine that promises not to be quickly outdated, the sources said. The monitor costs extra. A 15-inch flat panel display will be sold alongside the PC ú International Business Machine Corp.'s first such advanced monitor to retail for less than $1,000. The total cost of the Cobra, with monitor, will be just more than $3,000, they said. IBM and Intel declined to comment on upcoming product announcements. With Cobra, IBM is addressing a market largely ignored in the stampede by consumers to buy PCs for less than $1,000. These machines typically use standard components with little differentiation between products from rival vendors. "This is clearly IBM's attempt to drive up-market," industry analyst Aaron Goldberg at ZD Market Intelligence in La Jolla, Calif., said of IBM's plan. "What IBM is trying to do is blow the socks off rivals with better configurations." IBM is targeting power users - home office workers, heavy-duty video game players and graphic designers - who buy PCs more often, add a lot of peripherals and generate better profit margins than cost-conscious PC users. A hit at the high-end would add momentum to IBM's consumer business, which more than doubled its retail market share to 19 percent since February, thanks to success in selling sub-$1,000 PCs and competitive missteps by rivals, Goldberg said. Stella Kelly, a PC industry analyst with Market Metrix in Los Gatos, Calif., agreed, saying that July retail data shows that "IBM is doing very well at the low end but it is also doing very well at the high end of the consumer market." Market Metrix found that nearly two-thirds of IBM PCs sold through retail in July were for PCs that cost less than $1,000 - at street prices as low as $707. But another 28 percent of IBM's total were PCs priced higher than $2,000. A sales chart of IBM's consumer business has a dumbbell-shaped appearance with strength at the low-end and high-end of the market in terms of prices, she said. The "Cobra" will serve to fill out the high-end of IBM's consumer desktop PC line. Currently, the top of the line Aptiva "S" series machine sells for $2,800, monitor included. With the Cobra, IBM appears to be betting that a market for state-of-the-art, BMW-class consumer machines can thrive. It is a market that has virtually disappeared in the flight to cheaper computers - only 6 percent of PCs sold in June were priced higher than $2,000, according to ZD Market Intelligence data. "There's a halo effect that exists," Goldberg said of IBM's bid to improve its reputation for innovation across its product line-up. "If you get really great, really cool products at the high-end of the retail market it does help low-end sales." The new computer, which comes with top-of-the-line Infinity speakers and a bundle of advanced software, will be available worldwide starting Sept. 15, the sources said. Customers can choose to upgrade the Cobra to run an eye-popping 384 megabytes of computer memory. The machine marks the return of a strategy IBM used with success earlier in the 1990s on its innovative ThinkPad line of notebook computers - a brand for mobile customers who wanted the best of everything and were willing to pay a little extra.