Apple Macintosh again leads PC industry in brand loyalty.

LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1997--

CI Research Reveals Brands with Highest Repurchase Rates in 1996

For the third year in a row, the Apple Macintosh led the PC industry in repurchase loyalty in 1996, according to new research from Computer Intelligence (CI), the computer and communications industries' leading source of fact-based information. Following Apple in purchase loyalty rankings were Gateway 2000, Acer, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Dell, IBM, NEC, Packard Bell and AST.

The findings emerged from CI's recently released spring 1997 Consumer Technology Index (CTI), the largest and most comprehensive survey of technology ownership and usage among home, workplace and self-employed users in the United States. The repurchase rates measure what percentage of each brand's users who bought a PC in 1996 purchased the same brand of PC they previously owned. According to the CTI results, about four in five Apple Macintosh users who purchased a PC in 1996 bought another Macintosh (see table below).

Top 1996 Repurchase Rates
Apple Mac         81%
Gateway 2000      72%
Acer              69%
Compaq            60%
Hewlett Packard   58%
Dell              58%

Source: CI's Consumer Technology Index, 1997

"Apple's `three-peat' came in a year when the company was starting to come under intense pressure," said CI Senior Industry Analyst Dave Tremblay. "Our research confirms that one of Apple's key corporate assets is the loyalty of its user base to the Macintosh. But that loyalty may be to the MacOS platform, and not necessarily to the Apple brand. It is not something Apple can take for granted."

Tremblay continued, "MacOS clones started to have a substantial impact on the Mac marketplace only in the later stages of 1996, so did not have much of an effect on our loyalty figures, which measure repurchase rates for the full year. The MacOS platform is no longer a one-brand platform. Apple's reign as the loyalty champ may end in the coming years because of the success of Mac clones and because of Apple's on-going business struggles."

Not surprisingly, the CTI survey found that respondents who purchased PCs for personal use generally showed lower brand loyalty than individuals who work on employer-provided PCs. In fact, Apple's Macintosh was the only brand to have a repurchase rate above 50 percent in the home market, while nine of the top 11 brands have loyalty above 50 percent in the workplace segment. The differences are due mainly to price sensitivities among home PC users, who are spending their own funds rather than company funds, and to the fact that home users do not need to go through the purchase approval cycles present in many corporations.

Relative strengths of the top brands varied among the market segments. For Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Acer, repurchase loyalty in the workplace segment was substantially higher than in the home segment. Apple Macintosh loyalty was more nearly equal across the segments, ranging not more than five points from its overall score. Although Gateway 2000 was the No. 2 brand in all segments, its repurchase loyalty was more than 20 points higher in the workplace segment than in the home or self-employed segments.

CI's Consumer Technology Index study is the largest, most comprehensive research effort focusing on personal computer usage in the United States. An initial screening of 50,000 individuals identified PC users in home, workplace and self-employed markets. Final survey results are based on a detailed 12-page written questionnaire on the types and brands of equipment used in the three markets, which was mailed to 17,500 U.S. PC users. The survey also gathers extensive demographic information from respondents and ascertains their future purchase plans.

CI's Consumer Research Group focuses on the usage of technology products in the home/family, self-employed/work-at-home, and workplace markets.

Computer Intelligence, a Ziff-Davis company, is the leading source of fact-based information for the computer and communications industries. CI's extensive research capabilities provide a wide variety of products and services that help computer and communications companies sell and market more effectively. All of the company's products and services are based on proprietary information databases built and maintained by CI specialists.

Headquartered in La Jolla, Computer Intelligence has offices in Cambridge, Mass., Farmington and Norwalk, Conn.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; Dallas, Texas; and Europe. Samples of CI's extensive market data and research results, timely commentary from industry authorities and previews of upcoming technology events are available on the company's site on the World Wide Web, http://www.ci.zd.com .

Ziff-Davis, a Softbank company, is the leading provider of special-interest content about the Internet and computing. The quality and quantity of this content attract the largest and most powerful audience of early adopters and opinion leaders in both the business and consumer markets. Ziff-Davis enables advertisers to reach this audience effectively and efficiently through an integrated system of print, on-line and broadcast media.

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