
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990                   TAG: 9006260083
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOME COMPUTERS COMEBACK-READY? IBM IS BETTING YES

When personal computers first hit the market a little more than a decade ago, the sages of the day quickly proclaimed that the machine was destined to find a home in every home. Then reality set in.

Consumers quickly discovered that it almost took a Ph.D. in electrical engineering to assemble the system and another degree in computer programming to understand the user's manual. Finally, when the whole thing was up and running, the real heartbreak hit: It was just as easy to use a pen and paper for most of household tasks - balancing checkbooks, writing letters, updating address books - that the computer was supposed to do.

That's when thousands of home computers were moved into garages and closets, and conventional wisdom of the mid-1980s pronounced the market dead.

But today, computer makers say they are seeing important signs that the home market is ready for a comeback. They cite plunging PC prices, growing computer literacy, a new generation of easy-to-use software, and the lack of any other "gotta have" home electronics gadget competing for the consumer's pocketbook.

And some of the industry's biggest players are lining up to cash in.

Today, International Business Machines, whose first home computer product in 1983 was an embarrassing flop, is scheduled to unveil its latest entry, a machine that analysts say offers many of the features of its top-selling office PC model, the PS-2 Model 30, for between $1,000 and $2,000. Later this year, Commodore Business Systems, Apple Computer and, possibly, Atari Corp., plan to introduce their own lower-cost systems aimed at the mass market.

Analysts say the new systems, unlike some of their predecessors, are designed to serve a wide range of home uses, including education, business, household management and entertainment, with souped-up power and at a price that is only now possible.

Dataquest, a Silicon Valley market research company, predicts the home market will grow 16 percent each year through 1994 on the strength of the renewed consumer interest and the latest offerings from manufacturers. Dataquest estimates that about 20 percent of the nation's 90 million households currently have a PC.

by CNB