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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Earlie who wrote (50603)	3/8/1999 2:51:00 PM
From: BSGrinder	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Earlie, MB, Here is something I found astonishing: Intel expects China to fuel demand for the Pentium 3, despite the fact the boxes cost more than a year's average salary there!! dailynews.yahoo.com In the story above, after a bunch of stuff from Intel VP Albert Yu about an imminent internet explosion in China, we come to this rather common-sense revelation: "But some in the audience at the demonstration were sceptical (sic) of the need for such powerful computing power in China. ''The biggest problem in China is with the telecommunications system,'' said Pu Kang, a finance official at a Sino-Japanese joint venture, referring to China's relatively high Internet access fees and jam-packed networks. Quoting the Chinese proverb that describes excessive measures, she said using the new Pentium chip would be like ''using an ox cleaver to kill a chicken.'' E-commerce is still in its infancy in China, in part because the country still lacks the financial infrastructure, such as a developed credit system. Yu brushed aside such concerns, citing expansion of China's telecommunications infrastructure and Beijing's decision last week to slash Internet access fees by 50 percent to four yuan (48 cents) an hour. Personal computers sporting the Pentium III chip sell in China for between 13,000 and 20,000 yuan ($1,570-$2,415). A decent monthly salary in Beijing would be 800-1,000 yuan." Hello!?! Anybody home at Intel?! How many desktop boxes did anyone here in the U.S.expect to sell when their price was between 1 and 2 years of median income? This seems to be rather a thin reed that Intel is grasping. I hope they have a backup plan stashed somewhere. /Kit By the way, the internet demand logic is also loony: no credit cards and a connect charge equivalent to $8 an hour where income averages $25,000 a year.