To: A. Reader who wrote (6486 ) 3/31/1999 3:31:00 PM From: Steve Read Replies (3) | Respond to
Microsoft really destroyed there business by flooding the market in the late eighties early ninties with Word didn't they, poisoned all sorts of relationships for them. The low end of the market is the only place to be right now. 50% of the US is still without PC's and a majority of these people have never even used a Word Processor and couldn't tell you who makes Word. Putting WordPerfect on machines in this market is a sound strategy. There is no benefit for Corel by trying to get on the over $1000.00 market, the demographics are against them. Consumers in the higher end space are traditionally at least second time buyers or enthusiast the remainder are corp. buyers, not to mention the over $1000.00 space is diminishing quickly. PC manufacturers can't afford to put MS on the cheap machines, Corel is smart for offering there product at price that permits inclusion. Even nicer is MS has worked themselves into a corner, in order to compete with Corel in the low end they will have to significantly decrease there prices, which significantly decrease their revenue in turn hurting profitibility. Don't forget MS has the DOJ to deal with also. Corel is playing their cards right, they know there only chance to salvage this game is in the consumer space and that is where the are playing. The nice thing is Corporate buying and high end system buying is going flat, if Corel continues to grab consumer market share the game is far from over. The consumer, low end market is the only bastian of growth left in the industry all the manufactureres know this. Important to note that 50% of the US is without computers, many industry insiders predict that the evolution of set top boxes and other internet aplliance type sytems will integrate so quickly that probably 40% of the US population will skip PC's all together and go directly to hand held and embedded type internet devices. Hasta la vista PC. Let's all try and look past the end of our noses!!
