Big Blue gives NC a thumbs up

IBM has officially declared that the NetPC is a dead-end product, and has now put its weight solidly behind the rival network computer (NC).

The manufacturer also insisted that rather than be a replacement for the PC, the NC would be of most use in areas where the level of flexibility afforded by desktops was not required. It cited systems that carried out routine tasks in multiple-user environments, where regular software updates are the norm.

Gary Bridge, vice president of worldwide market intelligence and planning at IBM, said the manufacturer saw no value in the integrated machine and has withdrawn from the alliance of NetPC vendors that it joined in July. 'NCs will join PCs in the computing mix. PCs will not die as a result,' he said.

IBM had developed a prototype for the NetPC, which it has now abandoned.

According to the company, its customers wanted the flexibility of a PC and all the manageability of the network computer, and not a half-way house.

As a riposte to the total cost of ownership debate, Bridge said he could not see how this could be applied to the NetPC when it contained a hard disk drive which he claimed was the most fragile part of a computer.

Reseller Computacenter stocks Compaq NetPCs and NCs from IBM (manufactured by Network Computing Devices, but designed by IBM) Sun (Java Stations) and HDS.

According to a representative at Computacenter, the reseller was already piloting the NCs, but not the NetPC. 'The NetPC is neither fish nor foul.

We'll know what proportions of NCs, NetPCs and Windows terminals to stock in the next two weeks - after Comdex,' he said.