Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!think!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mandrill!neoucom!wtm
From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why clone the PS/2?
Summary: IBM PS/2 sales stats
Message-ID: <1181@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 17 May 88 14:00:34 GMT
References: <8685@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU> <5823@well.UUCP> <10600@steinmetz.ge.com> <21624@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 42


I just tossed out last week's (5/8/88) issue of PC Week magazine,
so I can't cite the precise figures any more (but you can look them
up).

It is true that the PS/2 is selling like hotcakes in Europe.  I
don't know what the economics are.  Perhaps the fall of the dollar
has something to do with it; perhaps some of the european
governments have eased restrictions of late.

The original IBM PC/XT/AT has been a historically slow seller in
europe because several factors combined to make it quite expensive.
Things like Commodore PC clones and Atari STs have been relatively
good sellers in europe.

I suppose the european popularity of the PS/2 is also somewhat due
the the fact that there is not such a preponderance of PC/XT/AT
machines there as there are here in the US, the the microchannel is
probably not as much a compatibility issue.  Viewed separately from
their predecessors, the PS/2s are pretty nice machines -- they are
compact, have reasonable graphics, are easy to service,
and are less expensive.

One interesting item from the figures-lie-liars-figure department
is that IBM says that it has shipped n millon PCs in the US, but
surveyors that track the industry speculate that up to 1/3 of that
number is in inventory with dealers.  The reslut is that dealers
are being squeezed because IBM is requiring dealers to stock all machines
in the PS/2 line, but some models are notriously slow sellers (the
model 80 for instance) and dealers are building up big piles of
unsold inventory.  A local chain store dealer* recently quoted me
$4750 for a 16 MHz model 80 with 2 meg RAM and 70 meg IBM disk, for
example (monitor extra). -- and that is not an eduational discount.
While not leading edge technology that still is a good price for a
machine of that level of performance.

--Bill
  wtm@neoucom.UUCP

Note: dealer listed below, skip now to avoid viewing name, if
desired.

* CBM Computer Center, 3883A Medina Rd, Akron, OH 44313