SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Hughes Aircraft to Trade In 1,000 Old PCs for New Apple, IBM Computers

Hughes Aircraft Co.’s Ground Systems Group in Fullerton said Monday that it will trade as many as 1,000 aging personal computers for discounted new Apple Macintosh and IBM systems in a buyback program with Businessland, a computer retail chain.

“This buyback program offers us a cost-efficient way to replace 30% of our current systems, which are over 4 years old, with new systems at a potential savings of close to $500,000,” said Mary Howlett, Hughes manager of management information technologies.

Hughes is one of the country’s largest Macintosh users, and the Ground Systems Group has about 2,500 Macintoshes currently in use.

The Hughes unit imposed a moratorium on computer purchases in May, 1989, after an internal review showed that it had two PCs for every employee. The company concluded that it had the right ratio of computers to employees, but it decided to upgrade its computers after a study indicated that obsolete equipment was taking a toll on employee productivity.

Apple officials said they are aggressively pursuing buyback clients who would like to replace older PCs with newer models. Hughes said it will save more than 50% off the retail price of the PCs it purchases because of credits for used equipment and volume purchase discounts.