COMPUTER MARKET AWAKENS TO HOME BUSINESSES.Byline: Margaret D. Williams Bloomberg Business News When Dawn Cermak needed to buy a new computer for her home-based business late last year, she had few choices. She could go to a local retailer and buy a personal computer geared more toward entertainment use, or do her own research, figure out exactly what she needed and try to order it by mail. Cermak, who runs a special-event planning business from her home in Columbia, Md., didn't want all the bells and whistles A slang English term for exceptional features in some product. In the computer field, it typically refers to functions in software that may be greatly appreciated by some users, even though they may not be necessary most of the time. included in standard consumer PCs, and found that the choices for mail order PCs were limited. Computer makers are starting to see Cermak's dilemma. Unlike home PC buyers, who want the latest multimedia features, sound cards and oodles of pre-packaged software See software package. , buyers like Cermak are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. reasonably priced, reliable machines with useful software and special features that help them run their businesses. "We're going to see a lot of companies play catch-up and target this marketplace," said Bill Ablondi, PC analyst at Giga Group, a market research firm. He noted that small-business owners have different needs from large corporate or home customers. "There's some definite opportunity here." In the past year and a half, computer makers have started introducing new models with the home-business owner in mind. In 1995, Giga estimates that 2.9 million home-business computers were sold in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , and that is expected to rise to 3.8 million in 1996. By 2000, it is expected that there will be 6 million units sold in the country. Compaq Computer Corp. said it started making models specifically for home businesses in 1994 when telecommuting telecommuting, an arrangement by which people work at home using a computer and telephone, transmitting work material to a business office by means of a modem and telephone lines; it is also known as telework. and home businesses started increasing. "Over the last year and a half, it has really taken off," said Mike Berman of Compaq's consumer desktop division. Two weeks ago, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. announced plans to jointly market a computer that is targeted at home and small-business owners, complete with Microsoft business software as well as voice mail, electronic mail, paging and fax/modem capabilities. Compaq Computer, Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc. also offer specially configured con·fig·ure tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: computers for small businesses and home-business owners. "They are interested in getting a great value, but they also have nowhere near the kind of complex needs or resources that large corporations have," said Jill Shanks
The shanks and tattlers are wading bird species in a number of genera characterised by a medium length bill and long, often brightly coloured legs. , a spokeswoman for Dell. Cermak has bought three computers from Gateway, which sells only through mail order, and spent $1,800 to $2,400 for each machine. She said the most important features to her were dependability and durability. "We're not buying state-of-the-art, but we're not buying three steps back, either," Cermak said, explaining that she doesn't always need the latest and greatest chips or software. She just needs to know that it won't break down. Corporations usually have an internal systems group that manages the computers, but for a small-business owner who may have a limited budget and few employees, simplicity and reliability are crucial. Some computer makers will offer service contracts that help solve problems if the system breaks down, and all offer warranties of some sort. That still can mean several days of lost work, though. Most small-business or home-business owners also want features such as tape backup Using magnetic tape for storing duplicate copies of hard disk files. Users can add an internal or external tape drive to their desktop computers for backup purposes, and files are typically copied to the tapes using a backup utility that updates on a periodic schedule. to protect their data, as well as telephone features to make up for not having an office voice mail system, including voice mail and faxing capabilities. Also, instead of games, multimedia applications and reference sources that are now included with many home PCs, small-business owners want a few useful business programs. Usually included with a small-business machine are applications such as word processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and , spreadsheet, desktop publishing desktop publishing, system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, and database management. Dell, which also sells only through mail order, will specially install any group of applications a customer wants on its Dimension line, which is targeted at small businesses. Those machines cost $1,299 to $3,500. Some PC makers use the same machines sold to consumers but configure See configuration. (software) configure - A program by Richard Stallman to discover properties of the current platform and to set up make to compile and install gcc. Cygnus configure was a similar system developed by K. them to meet the special needs of business owners. Compaq targets some of its Presario home computers for those who work from home. Those machines cost $1,500 to $3,000 and include network connection cards and a fax board, and exclude the CD-ROM drive A device that holds and reads CD-ROM discs. CD-ROM drives generally also play audio CD discs by sending analog sound to the sound card via a 4-pin cable. For specifications of 10x, 20x, etc. drives, see CD-ROM drives. See CD-ROM, CD-ROM changer, CD-ROM server and CD-ROM audio cable. . The Hewlett-Packard/Microsoft Small Business Center machines sell for $1,300 to $3,300. Compaq's small-business products cost $1,300 to $7,000. The Hewlett-Packard/Microsoft machines will be sold through Hewlett-Packard's resellers. Hewlett-Packard also will sell the computers through the direct sales channel at some retailers, including CompUSA and Computer City. Compaq sells its Prolinea computers for small-business owners through its resellers, including MicroAge Inc., Ingram Micro Ingram Micro, Inc. NYSE: IM a Fortune 100 company founded in 1979 and based in Santa Ana, California. It is the world’s largest technology distributor and a leading technology sales, marketing and logistics company. Inc. and Merisel Inc. Compaq's Presario computers are sold in most computer retail stores. |
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