Good Vibrations : Comdex Show Exudes Feeling of Boom Times for Computers
There were good vibrations at the spring Comdex personal computer trade show this week. And why not?
With a slew of new models hitting the market, the 6-month-old surge in PC sales has all the earmarks of a sustainable boom.
“It’s like the slump never happened,” exulted Sheldon G. Andelson, president of Interface Group, the show’s sponsor.
On top of that, the Beach Boys performed at a private party hosted by Digital Communications Associates for Comdex patrons. With the California sound in its arsenal, DCA and the Beach Boys were the hands-down winner of Tuesday night’s battle of the bands against The Four Tops, sponsored by NEC, and Alabama, presented by Quadram.
Judging from size of the crowd trying to crash the Beach Boys show, a manufacturer with the foresight to have named his new product the 409 or GTO would have swept the show.
As it turned out, the magic combination of letters and numbers belonged to IBM. Big Blue’s Personal System/2, introduced April 2, took Comdex by storm, buttressed by a survey showing the line rapidly gaining acceptance among small, medium-sized and large corporate customers.
Of 200 companies polled by International Data Corp., 61% said they are now more likely to buy PS/2 models after having had a chance to evaluate the new machines, compared to 18% who said they would likely stick with the old “industry standard” architecture.
The rapid acceptance of IBM’s new line is an ominous sign for Compaq Corp., whose president as recently as last month derided IBM’s new products as “New Coke.” The remarks were hardly surprising, since Compaq is the largest non-IBM maker of what had been the industry standard.
Compaq, for its part, skipped this spring’s Comdex. Its engineers are busily tearing apart IBM’s new line in an attempt to produce compatible products. Anticipating a legal challenge from IBM, Compaq is videotaping every move to document the legality of its work, PC Week reported Monday.
In any case, IBM’s booth at the show was mobbed. “It’s the first time a lot of people have had the chance to see the entire new line,” said spokeswoman Marilyn T. Mobley.
Many of them came away impressed with what they saw, citing the new machines’ speed, striking graphics and compatibility with existing software.
IBM also gave the show’s 50,000 attendees a peek at its new OS/2, the operating system software that is designed to succeed MS-DOS when it is shipped next year.
The crowd seemed impressed by OS/2’s ease of use. An operating system serves as a computer’s “traffic cop,” controlling basic functions.
“After years of getting beat up on by compatibles, IBM emerged as the big winner at this show,” said Gabe Najjar, a computer supplies and peripherals distributor from Columbia, Md.
Enzo Torresi, executive vice president of Businessland, faulted press coverage of IBM’s announcement for creating the initial impression that IBM might have problems marketing the new line.
“The press went to the wrong people--IBM’s competitors--for comments,” Torresi said. “What would you expect to hear from competitors? That IBM has come up with great stuff?
“I don’t think there is a lot of confusion in the marketplace,” Torresi added. “There is a lot of anxiety, because people competing with IBM are going to have to come up with some extraordinary things.”
Apple Computer, the other big winner at the show, didn’t even attend. Dozens of manufacturers exhibited add-on boards and peripheral products for Apple’s hot new Macintosh II.
“A year ago, we had one standard in the industry,” said Robert Kramarz, president of 1776 Inc., a Los Angeles maker of storage devices. “Now we have three: old IBM, new IBM and Macintosh.”
Steven B. Edelman, vice president of Scientific Micro Systems, compared the Mac II to “an Exocet missile streaking toward the Fortune 500.” Corporate buyers, he added, are snapping up his Supermac division’s giant color video screens and storage devices for the Mac II.
On the software side, there was the perennial lament that PC programmers have barely begun to tap the potential of computers built around such advanced microprocessors, or “brains,” as Intel’s 80386.
“Every week, as new hardware comes out, software is falling further and further behind,” said Phillipe Kahn, president of Borland International.
And a pair of software publishers who were sued for copyright infringement by Lotus Development in January for adopting the “look and feel” of Lotus 1-2-3 in their inexpensive Lotus clones decided to capitalize on their newly gained notoriety. The Lotus lawsuit has rocked the personal computer industry.
“Don’t get stuck in the lotus position,” urged Paperback Software International on a button it handed out to the crowd. “Buy VP-Planner.” And Mosaic Software, the other defendant in the “look and feel” lawsuit, asked Comdex attendees to “come, look and feel why Lotus has made Mosaic’s Twin the talk of the town.”
Said Michael Pineo, Mosaic’s director of marketing: “Our sales of Twin have doubled since Lotus filed suit.”
