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MULTIMEDIA PC TO REMEDY COMPUTER MARKET MALAISE
This summer, the disk drive industry is experiencing
a widespread malaise. Demand for storage products from PC manufacturers,
the industry’s largest customer, remain lackluster. PC makers
are keeping inventories lean in the wake of languid demand from buyers.
The story is no less bright for suppliers to the disk drive industry.
Suppliers of components, such as disk platters and read/write heads
are seeing slow demand. Nevertheless, the overall industry is not caught
up in a downward spiral. Manufacturers are reporting profitability and
planning for an upturn in demand in the second half of this year.
What promises to be the next big wave to hit the PC business is computers
with more multimedia functionality, specifically 2D and 3D, MPEG video,
and improved sound, all of which will demand even higher capacity disk
drive storage.
Typical of the new systems aimed at the home user is the Aptiva from
IBM Personal Computer Company in Somers, N.Y. Available with 133-MHz
or 200-MHz Pentium, the new system comes with 8X CD-ROM drive, integrated
3-D graphics, 3.2-Gbyte hard drive, and 32 Mbytes of memory contained
in the high-performance expansion models.
The system also offers TheatreSound, Total Image 3D, and full-screen
MPEG-1 video for bundled games such as MechWarrior 2 3D Rage Edition
and VR Soccer. The systems started shipping last month at $1,799 for
the 133-MHz Pentium versions.
According to San Jose, Calif. research firm, Dataquest, the worldwide
multimedia desktop PC market grew from 10.3 million units in 1994 to
over 20.8 million units in 1995. The greatest growth came in the Pacific
Rim, 391% and Europe, 144%. The U.S. market grew by 35%. The outlook
for 1996 remains bright (see story p. 2).
IBM’s Aptiva, notwithstanding, the beneficiary of multimedia PC
growth is Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. The harried company
remains the top vendor of this class of PC. However, the market share
of the top five suppliers continues to fall thanks to aggressive competition
from overseas competitors. The market share of Tokyo-based NEC Corp.
nearly doubled in 1995 over 1994 for example.
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| Top 5 Desktop
Multimedia PC Vendors (in Thousands) |
| Company |
1994
Units |
1994
(%) |
1995
Units |
1995
(%) |
Rise (%) |
| Apple |
2,349 |
22.9 |
3,931 |
18.8 |
67.4 |
| Packard Bell |
1,969 |
19.2 |
3,004 |
14.4 |
52.6 |
| Compaq |
1,226 |
11.9 |
1,931 |
9.3 |
57.5 |
| IBM |
820 |
8 |
1,549 |
7.4 |
88.9 |
| NEC |
445 |
4.3 |
1,465 |
7 |
229.3 |
| Others |
3,305 |
32.3 |
8,977 |
43 |
171.5 |
| Total |
10,267 |
100 |
20,858 |
100 |
103.2 |
| Source: Dataquest |
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