Bringing Non-Adopters Along : The Challenge Facing the PC Industry

In 1998, PaineWebber predicted personal computer (PC) market penetration could rise to 70% by the year 2000 due largely to the low-end, less expensive machines. Yet, recent studies indicate that only about forty to fifty percent of all households have purchased a PC (ABCNews.com 2000; Newburger 1999). More than half of this potential market has yet to be exploited, and we are nowhere close to the prediction. Currently, companies in the PC industry, including Dell, Gateway, Apple, and AMD, are experiencing lower than expected profits, indicating a significant slowdown in the diffusion of PCs