InformationWeek

November 17, 1997

Desktop Options

n early March, with the release of the final specification for building Microsoft-backed NetPCs and with the promise of business-ready PCs priced at around $1,000, IS managers suddenly had four options for computing on the desktop. Besides the aforementioned options, there were also network computers and traditional high-end PCs priced in the $2,500 range.

Unlike in the past, when IS managers had one choice and were being forced to shoehorn fat, expensive clients into every corner of the enterprise, this phenomenon represented the beginning of incredible change for desktop computing. In fact, in the eight months since this story ran, the four options have morphed again, as users weigh in with their preferences and influence the evolution of the technologies.

NetPCs are being taken less seriously by both users and vendors; NCs are gaining in acceptance as customers begin to understand their benefits-although some companies are focusing the machines more narrowly; and, spurred by competition from NCs as well as by demands from users who want help in controlling costs, the $1,000 bar for low-cost PCs will soon be driven down to $800 when new machines ship in the first quarter of 1998.

The downside of having the four choices available, however, was that many IS managers had a hard time differentiating between some of the platforms. An InformationWeek survey of 125 IS managers conducted the week before the "Choice" article was published showed that 43% of them did not differentiate between an NC and a NetPC.

But some intrepid buyers had no such trouble. Sallie Mae Servicing Corp. in Reston, Va., for example, was making plans in March to replace 2,000 workstations in its call center with NCs. Says Israel Gotay, assistant VP of computer operations for Sallie Mae, "Maintenance, software distribution, and the constant obsolescence of software is just becoming expensive and troublesome."

Story's authors: Bob Francis and Stua rt J. Johnston

Read it on the Web at: techweb.cmp.com/iw/622/22iudsk.htm

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