AST Unveils New Generation of Bravo PCs

AST Research Inc. took another step in what promises to be a long turnaround journey Monday, as the computer maker unveiled a new lineup of desktop PCs that are expected to satisfy the company’s business customers well into 1997.

The new machines are AST’s latest upgrade of its Bravo nameplate, which is aimed at corporate customers and typically accounts for about 35% of the company’s sales each year, said David Zwerling, manager of the business desktop product line.

Zwerling said the software and equipment built into the latest Bravo offerings, which are priced between $1,220 and $2,415, offer evidence that AST is delivering on recent promises to be first to market with new technologies.

“We estimate we have about a 60-day jump on our key competitors,” said Zwerling, who added that the company has already sold out of all the Bravo machines it will build this month.

The new generation of Bravo PCs is based entirely on Intel’s Pentium processors for the first time and come with several features designed to appeal to corporate computer managers. One is a program that enables technicians to electronically check on the hardware and software configuration of each PC in a network, rather than inspect each computer by hand.

AST has also pledged to its customers and distributors that its machines will be priced within 5%, if not lower, of any comparable offerings from archrival Dell Computer Corp., Zwerling said.

Analysts said the new Bravo PCs are an attractive lineup, and that they show AST can deliver on its early-to-market promises. But they also stressed that AST, which has lost $324 million over the past six quarters, has plenty of hurdles ahead.

“AST now has a direction for the first time in a lot of years,” said Scott Miller, an analyst at Dataquest Inc. in San Jose. “The products are good, and they’ve proven that AST can deliver, but it’s not enough for us to say that AST is out of the woods.”