PCs for home use dominate show

News Analysis The $500 and sub-$500 PCs were the most popular machines at Comdex. Mike Magee reports.

There's usually always a theme to Comdex Fall in Las Vegas, but thises at Comdex. Mike Magee reports. year it was harder to find. To some extent, you can get a flavour of the show just by listening carefully to the keynote speeches - but even those gave little clue this year.

Last year's buzzword was internet, but the US is now so permeated with Net awareness that while it still figured prominently at the show, it has already become an accepted part of the IT landscape.

One vendor at the show gave a statistic which clearly demonstrated that.

Pac Bell, a large US carrier, says over 50 per cent of traffic on lines is data based. Every man and his dog has a Website and a URL, and it's clear from watching the TV channels that although e-commerce has not yet reached the European shores, it is widely pervasive in the US.

But behind the usual hype associated with this trade show, there was one clear trend - the arrival of the $500 and even the sub-$500 PC, associated with a converging consumer electronic market.

Penetration of PCs in the US home market is high, but many families still cannot afford PCs, or associate them with a gearhead mentality. US vendors want to grab the hearts and the wallets of this sector and persuade the rest of the world that the PC really is a home device.

That is likely to lead to both high-end consumer systems and low-end models for people who have not yet made a buying decision.

That's entertainment

Eckhard Pfeiffer, CEO of Compaq, said in his keynote speech that the hardware manufacturer had made the breakthrough to systems under $1,000 and mentioned sub-$500 systems in the near future.

Pfeiffer also took time out to present Compaq's PC Theatre, an entertainment console which uses DVD drives, high-resolution flat-screen technology and sophisticated audio and control systems, which, in his own words, meant that people need never leave their couches. That system costs about $5,000 and was matched by Philips, which was showing a similar system with a similar price tag.

On the other end of the scale, chip companies Cyrix and Cirrus Logic were demonstrating reference platforms for a box which will sit happily in living rooms and, while looking nothing like a PC and more like an entertainment system, also has PC functionality. The integration of surround sound, high-end screens, the ability to browse the Web and also perform PC computing, at a price tag of about $500 or $600, will be attractive to many households.

Masterful voice

Voice technology was also addressed at the show. As taxis lined up to take the visitors back to their gaudy hotels on the Vegas strip, many were blazoning out IBM's ViaVoice message. Voice recognition is close to realising the dreams of those who wish to avoid Qwerty keyboards, it seems.

Intel blocked the main corridor in the convention centre with a demonstration of the Pentium II applied to cars - a gaggle of people dressed in brightly coloured bunny outfits thumping out the message that an intelligent chip in your Dodge is something to be desired.

And, in the background, the debate over whether Net PCs or NCs will capture the enterprise market continued. In the press room, there was a mixture of Macs, PCs and IBM network stations, all connected to a central server which then linked to the internet.

Meanwhile, several vendors showed personal digital assistants and CE devices, which - if their claims are to be believed - will let people perform all kinds of miracles while on the move. High-quality colour printers and digital cameras - soon to achieve almost throwaway status - completed the picture.

The underlying theme then was the convergence of PC technology, which looks as though it is finally becoming a reality.

But whether the PC industry can support such a move is a little more problematic. IT vendors which have made large multibillion investments in manufacturing and marketing products all face the prospect that margins will become thinner than ever.

The consumer market breeds commoditisation and that could mean the fulfilment of Pfeiffer's prediction that in the next three to four years, there will be few players who can still make hay while the Sun shines.