PC sales in Red China put ideas in Big Blue head.

Sabre rattling in the South China Sea may have a bigger impact on the PC industry than most had previously thought. That is if a report from news service Reuters is to be believed.

Quoting the Xinhua news agency last week, Reuters said that domestic PC sales will grow annually by 45 per cent over the next three years, leap-frogging the US and accounting for a cool four per cent of the worldwide market by 1998.

Sales in Red China have risen by 200 per cent in the last two years and big companies like IBM are have taken an interest in that.

Last week, Blyth Software chief executive officer Mike Minor revealed that Big Blue had embarked on an enormous project to build virtual kiosks in the country. The local populace in the new cities around Shanghai will be able to buy cars and finance packages using OS/2-based booths.