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To: Joe NYC who wrote (30022)	10/23/1998 8:38:00 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 33344

IBM getting rid of MII inventory. October 23, 1998 IBM Plans to Unveil Aptiva For $599 by Late November By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter ARMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp. is getting ready to unveil a $599 personal computer, a pre-emptive strike to position its Aptiva brand at the low end of the sub-$1,000 market for home computers. IBM, which came late to the sub-$1,000 market and lost significant opportunity to boost its Aptiva sales, plans to start selling the new model in late November with an eye to the coming holiday shopping season. The new Aptiva D1N comes with a 300-megahertz IBM processor chip, based on a design from National Semiconductor Corp.'s Cyrix unit, and a 3.2-gigabyte hard disk drive. Customers will have to pay extra for a monitor. While IBM isn't the first company to start selling powerful PCs for under $600, it is the first major brand to enter the segment. Compaq Computer Corp. is selling its new Presario 2266 for $799, though customers who sign up for Compaq's Internet service get a $100 rebate. IBM's least-expensive Aptiva currently sells for $799. IBM's early move to tap into a new sub-$600 market suggests the computer giant continues to believe in its chances in the hotly contested consumer-PC business. Third-quarter industry data, which are expected to come out next week, are likely to show that the Aptiva brand is picking up some market share, albeit off a small base, industry executives said. The new Aptiva, code-named Key West, is being manufactured for IBM in Taiwan and other low-cost markets by third parties.