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Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June
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Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso
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1984
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1991-10-04
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[***][5/1/84][***]
APPLE IIC:
Since the hoop-la at Tuesday's "event" is already past history, let's
get down to basics. Within 7 and a half hours on Tuesday, 50,000
Apple IIc computers were ordered by dealers at the show. That breaks
a record for computer orders in one day and also guarantees that
at least in the short-run, the IIc will be in abundant supply on
retail shelves.
Deliveries have been guaranteed to stores
by May 3. Scully says 30,000 Apple IIcs are in inventory at Apple's
Dallas, Texas manufacturing plant. Production of IIcs will reach
one per seven seconds shortly. Most analysts are saying Apple has
made all the right moves, but are concerned that the machine, once
peripherals are added on, is actually going to cost some $2,000, far
more than Apple's base price of $1295.
----
CONTACT: APPLE COMPUTER
CUPERTINO, CA.
408-973-2042
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
APPLE PROFITS:
Apple's combined Mac and IIc advertising campaigns this summer will
be a calculated risk for a company that's just emerging from a poor
market position. The ads will cost upwards of $25 million. President
John Scully said, on the day after the IIc unveiling, that Apple's
profits will probably stay flat through the third quarter of this
year. "It is reasonable to expect that earnings per share will be
25 cents in the third quarter and 40 cents in the fourth quarter," he
was quoted as saying.
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
IBM--THE BAD GUY?
Just as Apple people were celebrating, IBM's lawyers were gearing up for
another major fight--this one against the European Economic Community
Commission which charged IBM with abusing its overwhelming marketing
position in Europe to stifle competition. This newest antitrust case
will be officially filed in June. The European Common Market reportedly
wants IBM to disclose its trade secrets regarding compatibility between
its computers and software so that other companies can compete. IBM
controls approximately 40-percent of the computer market in Europe.
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
CHIPPING AWAY:
IBM's Essex Junction, Vermont research laboratory has developed a one
megabit RAM chip which it hopes to have commercially available by next
year. IBM's chip is reportedly 3/8ths X 5/16ths of an inch square and
has the capacity of holding up to 100 pages of text. This is the first
announcement by a U.S.-based company that such a chip has been
experimentally designed; up until now only Japanese firms have revealed
their experimental 1-million bit chips. To date the 256K chip, marketed
by AT&T, has the largest memory of any chip commercially available.
----
CONTACT: IBM
ESSEX JUNCTION, VERMONT
802-769-0111
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
EAGLE'S NEW SPECIES:
The Eagle PC Turbo was introduced last week. It's designed to compete
head-on with the IBM XT computer but supposedly runs twice as fast (hence
the term "turbo"). The Turbo has a new input-output device, a direct
result of IBM's patent suit against the company, but Eagle spokespeople
say the new machine will still run all programs written for the IBM PC.
As for the loss of some $9 million due to delays resulting directly from
the IBM suit, Eagle expects to earn that back shortly, "But it won't
happen overnight," says Eagle President Ron Mickwee.
----
CONTACT: EAGLE COMPUTER
LOS GATOS, CA.
408-395-5005
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
COMPUTER STANDARDS TO BE SET:
The Tower of "Babble" in computer languages is about to be destroyed if
the government has its way. The Bureau of Standards, working with
industry leaders, expects its year-long study to culminate in a series
of new standards for computer communication by July. The agreement
reads, "The standards will permit computer users and manufacturers
to develop computer networks more easily and at a reduced cost."
Anyone who's ever tried to link office equipment from various manufacturers
knows this could be a welcome relief. The site of the demonstration
in July will be the National Computer Conference in Las Vegas.
----
CONTACT: NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
202-921-1000
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
FUJITSU UNDERSELLS:
In the wake of the resignation of Fujitsu America, Inc.'s Vice President
and its Engineering Manager, the Japanese company appears to be in trouble.
Fujitsu makes the "16S" computer which was introduced in the U.S. market
last year. One source says only 1,000 of the computers have been sold;
another 10,000 are in inventory. Fujitsu is among several Japanese
manufacturers crowding into the American market, but analysts say they
have little chance of selling in quantity. "American firms have
established the marketing and distribution channels--and they're pretty
well tied up," says Alex Stein of Dataquest.
----
CONTACT: CLAUDIA NATALIA
FUJITSU
SANTA CLARA, CA.
408-998-8100
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
COMPAQ'S GOOD NEWS:
Compaq, like Digital Equipment and Prime Computer, posted first quarter
profits. Compaq, which posted a $3.2 million dollar loss last year,
earned $3.3 million this year and boasts that sales of its computers
increased 12-fold over this time last year. Compaq's computer is in direct
competition with IBM's new portable computer, but Compaq says its computer
is lighter and more advanced than IBM's--hence bigger sales.
Compaq has been launching a heavy advertising campaign recently, and
will continue this summer by spending $5.5 million on advertising
of an "unspecified product." Therefore, says Ron Canion, president
of the company, second quarter earnings may be a bit lower.
----
CONTACT: COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP.
HOUSTON, TEXAS
713-370-7040
----
[***][5/1/84][***]
IN BRIEF--
SUNRISE SYSTEMS, currently at work on Xerox's newest lap-sized portable,
the "1815" may be close to bankruptcy. INFOWORLD says the firm is having
cash-flow problems.
--SENTE TECHNOLOGIES, started by Nolan Bushnell, will
be sold to Bally Manufacturing for $3 million. A bankruptcy judge
approved the sale last week.
--COLUMBIA DATA PRODUCTS, maker of the
Columbia Computer, will spent $10 million on a new headquarters in--
you guess it--Columbia, Maryland.
--HEWLETT-PACKARD goes south of the
border to join hands with a Mexican conglomerate, Desc Sociedad de
Fomemento Industrial S.A. The pair will manufacture HP's personal
computer products in Guadalajara.
--MICROSOFT of Belleview, Washington
is offering a utility program that enables Wordstar, Visicalc and
Lotus 1-2-3 to be used with a hand-held mouse. It costs $25 if you
have a mouse, $195 if you don't.
--And those APPLE pirates from the
Far East were sentenced this week. Both got $15,000 fines from a
Philadelphia federal judge, plus will be required to serve up to 30
days in jail.
--GAMMA TECHNOLOGIES has introduced a 9600 baud modem
board for the IBM PC/XT. It can be used through ordinary phone lines
and can transmit a typewritten page in 3 seconds! It costs $1995,
is available in May. For more info, call Gamma at 415-856-7421 in
Palo Alto, Ca.
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[***][5/1/84][***]
BUT IS IT ART?
According to people at the Museum of Modern Art, Mindset's new Personal
Computer IS art, and it's been selected to hold a place in the museum's
design wing. The computer was selected for its industrial design and
its graphics capability. The Mindset will now stand alongside other
industrial products in the museum's Designer Collection. How's that
for status?
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CONTACT: MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
212-708-9400
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[***][5/1/84][***]
AND FINALLY:
The Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will be a hi tech extravangza and
no fewer than 36 electronics companies contributing equipment. Xerox,
Hewlett-Packard, Teletype and IBM are among the doners of everything
from copiers to computers. And according to the San Jose Mercury
News, Hewlett-Packard is also donating a computer-controlled
analyzer to the UCLA toxicology lab. It will be used to test for drugs
in the blood of athletes.
----