Device Bay plan will downgrade dealers

Compaq, Intel and Microsoft are threatening to upset dealers? businesses after announcing plans to launch their co-developed PC upgrade component, Device Bay.

The firms have released plans to develop an initial specification for Device Bay and will announce final specification details later this year.

The Device Bay ? based on Universal Serial Bus and IEEE 1394 interfaces ? will enable users to add and configure peripherals themselves, thereby limiting upgrade opportunities for dealers.

Device Bay has defined an industry specification for interchangeable peripheral devices and is expected to be supported in future Intel chipsets, Windows and Compaq products. The concept has already received industry-wide acceptance.

Mike Winkler, Compaq PC products general manager, said: ?Device Bay will dramatically change the way PCs are purchased, used and upgraded.?

The move follows hot on the heels of Compaq?s decision to sell direct to the SME market, after it conceded that it could not compete against the direct manufacturers (PC Dealer, 19 March).

John Fenton, MD of components and assembly distributor Osmosis, said: ?It sounds like sod the dealers time, but if Microsoft and Intel make it a standard, then you?ve got to listen.?

Pat Gelsinger, Intel VP and general manager for desktop products, said the technology will ?open up new models of upgradability for business and consumer products and nicely complements our vision for Net PC?. He was unable to say whether dealer sales would be affected.

Moshe Dunie, VP of Microsoft?s Windows operating systems division, added that Device Bay will allow ?easy extensibility for every user?.