Word: pc
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...clamor for the new product reflects the continually growing power of the world's largest computer maker. Since August 1981, when it unveiled its first Personal Computer, or PC, IBM has claimed a pacesetting 28% of the market for machines costing between $1,000 and $5,000. The PC, intended mainly for office use, is costlier and more powerful than a home computer. Last year IBM sold 185,000 PCs. This year sales are expected to reach some 800,000. Runner-up Apple, once the leader in small machines, this year will have sales of about...
...meanwhile, has been relentlessly pouring it on with new products, aggressive pricing and an avalanche of advertising. Last month it introduced a pair of new PC models, the 3270 and the XT-370, that will give users of IBM's desktop equipment access to the company's large mainframe computers. Since an estimated two-thirds of the 1,000 largest U.S. industrial firms use IBM mainframes, the new machines will make the company even tougher to beat. Says Ulric Weil, a computer-industry analyst for Morgan Stanley: "The 3270 could lock Apple, Tandy and other major personal-computer...
...home computer in fine detail. It is expected to come in a basic version with 64,000 characters of memory for $695, and an expanded model that includes a disc drive and twice as much memory for $1,295. Both versions will have far less overall capability than the PC itself, to keep them from biting deeply into the costlier product's sales. Perhaps the most striking feature of the new machine is a battery-operated keyboard that is not attached to the main part of the computer and will enable users to move about a room. Like...
Innovation, however, has seldom been IBM's strongest selling point. The company has traditionally stressed service and reliability. The PC, for example, was not a technological breakthrough and is assembled largely from parts made by outside suppliers. Its microprocessing heart is manufactured by California-based Intel, while the monitor's display tube is produced by Japan's Matsushita. Microsoft of Bellevue, Wash., provides the operating system, or master program. The PC has been successful largely because the IBM name symbolizes confidence and security in a field known for instability and uncertainty...
...lack of originality in IBM's PC has hardly been a drawback. The company deliberately made the computer's specifications widely available so that the machine could become the industry standard. That tactic has worked so well that PC users are now able to choose from a vast array of programs that run on the machines. Says David Wagman, chairman of Softsel, a Los Angeles software distributor: "The change has been overwhelming. Eighteen months ago, 85% of the software we saw was for Apple and 5% for IBM. Now 29% is for IBM and 26% for Apple...