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From: mcmillan@eosp1.UUCP (John McMillan)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: IBM  P O R T A B L E  COMPUTER
Message-ID: <606@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Feb-84 22:34:57 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.606
Posted: Tue Feb 21 22:34:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Feb-84 01:41:35 EST
References: <1720@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 27

The IBM portable will be cheaper than the PC, it seems.  Competitors
will have to come to terms with the lowered price.

The IBM portable will weigh 30 pounds.  Now that's a nice target to compete
with.

The IBM portable will not be available in quantity for quite a while.
The portable competitors will therefore temporarily BENEFIT from the
announcement because:
	- IBM has now blessed the concept
Later on, when IBM's shipments build up, the other potable manufacturers will
be in trouble.

I think that Compaq will be best off among the competitors, since:
	- They have the portable hard disk
	- They have not yet committed themselves regarding
	  giveaway software.

One of the cheapest ways to compete on price is to give away software
with the machine.  Compaq hasn't done this yet (I believe).  The
strategy is open to them, and they can take more time to try to choose
what software to give away.
					- Toby Robison
					allegra!eosp1!robison
					decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison
					princeton!eosp1!robison
					(NOTE! NOT McMillan; Robison.)