n631  0706  09 Nov 77
 
BC-Computers 3takes 11-09
BY RAY DELONG
(c) 1977 Chicago Daily News
CHICAGO     - Electronics salesmen call it the next major home
appliance. Scoffers call it nothing more than an expensive toy
for the ostentatious family.
    No matter what the level of interest, home computers are here.
Hints of what they can do have already been marketed in such
appliances as the Amana RadarRange.
    The machines don't look ominous at all. Many consist
primarily of a typewriter keyboard and a 12-inch TV screen.
That's about it.
    The capability of a home computer is determined by the amount of
money a buyer will spend. One computer, with a base price of $600,
will play blackjack and backgammon with its owner.
    Big deal, you say. I can play that with my next-door neighbors.
    But there's more for those who are willing to pay more. A $5
option will enable the buyer to store recipies, adapt them for making
larger or smaller servings, keep an inventory of food on
hand and plan menus.
    For another $15, the machine can be used to help with the
checkbook and the household budget.
    That's the type of thing a take-it-home-and-plug-it-in
computer can do these days.
    Relatively low-cost computers were made possible by
rapidly advancing technology, specifically the microprocessor.
That is a tiny silicon chip the size of a baby's fingernail.
Large-scale, integrated computer circuitry that once took up entire
rooms now can be implanted on this incredible small surface.
    The home computer business began in January, 1975, when an outfit
called MITS put out the first computer kit. Now, there are about
a dozen substantial manufacturers according to Don Muller, senior
vice president of Pertec Computer Corp. (Pertec, which
bought out MITS earlier this year, is the microcomputer leader with
at least 25 per cent of the market.)
    But most makers don't have much substance. Muller said there are
about 30 to 40 firms in the ''second echelon,'' way down in
total volume from the dozen leaders. He estimated that 20,000
home-computer units have been sold since that January, 1975,
beginning. The current industry guess places the number of
retail outlets nationally at about 500.
    These stores slowly are turning from selling kits to pushing
ready-to-use models. For one thing, after the cream of the tinkers
bought theirs, the not-so-terrific tinkers came in. It was
a disaster. They simply didn't know what they were doing and the
manufacturers spent too much time trying to salvage the
machines. Ed Cooper, general manager of American
Micro-processors Equipment and Supply Corp. said: ''The days
of the kits are over as far as we're concerned. Of every 10
kits we sold, we had 7 or 8 back for repairs.''
    The second reason for turning away from the kits was that to
reach a mass market, the companies had to build in ready-to-use
convenience.
    Assembled home computers hovered in the $1,200-$2,000 price range
until this year. Then in June, Commodore Business Machines, a
California company, brought out its ''PET'' model. Price
$595. In August, Tandy Corp., through its Radio Shack
subsidiary, came out with its TRS-80. Price: $599.95.
    The market broke open. Commodore has shipped about 200 models
so far, according to marketing vice president Sam Bernstein. Tandy
isn't saying how many it has sold, except that they can't keep
up with the demand.
    Just how strong is the demand? Burt Barnett manages a
Radio Shack store in Chicago. His store has sold six TRS-80s
since they were introduced in August, four for home use, two
for business use. None of the six customers even saw a machine
- there haven't been enough manufactured to permit dealers to
keep one on hand. But they knew what they wanted and ordered it.
For the TRS-80, delivery takes about 8 weeks; for the
PET, it's 12 weeks.
hb    (more) 11-09
 
 
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n653  0709  09 Nov 77
 
BC-Lastsked 1st add 11-09
 
DOMESTIC
 
CHICAGO (CDN - BRIBERS) - A card for the players, lists the
names, residences and occupation of eight men tried for bribery,
fraud and conspiracy in a Chicago Sanitary District scandal.
(250) a631 CDNPM
 
CHICAGO (Kloss, Mooney - CDN - SLUDGE) - A jury convicts five
and acquits three in a Chicago Sanitary District Bribery trial
involving a New Orleans-based firm, local officials and politicians.
(1,550) a643, ayrr, a645 CDNPM
 
CHICAGO (Draeger, Clements - CDN - SANITARY) - The sludge
hauling scandal does not end with convictions: Info trades with the
convicted in sentence bargaining, new investigation and a new
round of indictments could reach higher into Illinois political
and financial circles. (1,600) - a646, a647, a648 CDNPM
 
INTERNATIONAL
 
WASHINGTON (Beech - CDN - SHAH) - The shah of Iran will be
treated to two vastly different receptions when he arrives here
next week - one from the U.S. government and another from hostile
Iranian students who see him as a brutal dictator.
(600) - a610 CDNPM
 
LONDON (Green - Telegraph - MONEY) - Healthy economic growth, in
the industralized world as well as in the developing countries,
depends on more encouragement of capital investment at home
and on exports. Attention financial editors.
(1,250) - a611, a612 CDNPM
 
BASTIA, CORSICA (Borowiec - CDN - CORSICA) - From a neglected
stepchild of France, economically underprivileged and
underpopulated, Corsica is now turning into a scene of bitter
multipronged feuding. (1,050) - a613, a614 CDNPM
 
LONDON (Telegraph - PRIZE) - The widow of American poet
Robert Lowell, Caroline Blackwood, is one of six finalists for
the Booker Prize, Britain's biggest fiction award.
(100) - a615 CDNPM
 
CHICAGO (DeLong, 2d story - CDN - YOUNG) - U.N. Ambassador
Andrew Young is sounding more and more these days like an apologist
for the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter. (350) - a635 CDNPM
 
JOHANNESBURG (Munnion - Telegraph - BIKO) - Evidence due to emerge
at the inquest next week into the death in detention of Steve Biko
will lead to new demands for a judicial inquiry into the
administration of South Africa's security laws. (750) - a636 CDNPM
 
TOKYO (Cullison - Telegraph - JAPAN) - The Japanese government
announces a new series of anti-hijacking measures to tighten up
security at the nation's airports and at terminals abroad serving
Japan Air Line commercial jetliners. (600) - a637 CDNPM
 
GENEVA (Telegraph - LABOR) - China is not prepared to take part
in the work of the International Labor Organization in the
foreseeable future. (100) - a638 CDNPM
 
LONDON (Izbicki - Telegraph - READING) - A poll taken at a 595
year-old boys school in England rates Charles Dickens' book ''Hard
Times'' as among the most boring books ever written. (300) - a639
CDNPM
 
SPORTS
 
AUSTIN, Tex. (Schulian - CDN- SCHULIAN) - The University of Texas
is number one in football again, so chicken-fry that steak, pop
a Lone Star beere, crank up a Willie Nelson tune and watch the
Longhorns stampede. (1,550) - a649, a650 CDNPM
 
FEATURES AND REGULAR COLUMNS
 
BELGRADE (Evans-Novak) Rls Thurs, Nov. 10 (850) - f815 f816 CDNPM
 
DENVER (Kraft) Rls Thur-Fri Nov. 10-11 (850) f817 f818 CDNPM
 
WASHINGTON (Rowan Rls Fri Nov 11 (700) f819 f820 CDNPM
 
WASHINGTON (Rowan) Rls Sun-Mon Nov. 13-14 (700) f821 f822 CDNPM
 
UNDATED (Greene) Rls Mon Nov 14 (1,450) f823 f824 f825 CDNPM
jj    more 11-09
 
 
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n632  0707  09 Nov 77
 
BC-Computers 1stadd 11-09
(Ray DeLong) . . . 12 weeks.
    What makes someone decide to lay out the money? Richard Goldman,
a dentist, has done much of his own tinkering on a computer he'll
put into his office and has spent a lot of money (about $10,000
for machinery alone), but he knew nothing about computers
when he first decided to go ahead about a year ago.
    ''I was looking through one of those popular science magazines
and the ads hit my eye. You know the type: 'Be the first on your
block to rule the world.' ''
    Jim Bannasch, president of itty bitty (cq) machine co. (that's
ibm, not IBM) in suburban Evanston, said he has
sold 400 microcomputers since June, 1976, to
customers age 16 to 73.
    The 16-year-old was Ethan Lavan. He also saw the ads in the science
magazines. ''It looked fascinating to me. When I first got the
system, I didn't know much about computers.''
    Ethan now has a unit sitting on the chest of drawers in his room.
''I'm using it as a hobby and to help with my schoolwork.'' Ethan's
model was not one of the new, less expensive varieties.
    How many people can really afford such a hobby? Even the designer
of one of the cheapest units on the market, the Radio Shack model,
admits that the market isn't quite ready.
    ''Initially, we thought the TRS-80 would be the home computer,''
said Steve Leininger, Tandy's engineering manager. ''It turns
out we shot a bit high for the home. It's not a true home
computer because we don't know what people want to do with it
in the home. The home computer is really two to five years off.''
    The problem is that in most cases, the people with
the money don't understand or trust the machines. Pertec's
Muller put it bluntly: ''There are very few people who think
they need a computer.''
    What the home computer industry needs is a little more time. Not
for technology; that's in fine shape. They need time for those who
have been exposed to computers at an early age to grow up. Or, as
Tandy's Leininger said, ''I have found that if you take a naive
kid, say a first-grader, he will have an easier time using
(my machine) than someone who has been brought up in a society
where people blame the computer for their problems.''
    ''By the time kids are getting to the age of setting up
their own homes,'' said itty bitty's Bannasch, ''you'll see the
computers come in.''
    In the meantime, the microcomputer industry must thrash around
trying to interest small businessmen in their products. In fact, that
is the market many manufacturers are now aiming at.
    ''There's a trend away from home computers to small business,''
said American Microprocessors' Cooper. ''You have to
sell lots of home computers to do very well - and you have
a lot of people asking questions. You can sell a small number
of small business computers to do very well, with a lot
fewer questions later on.''
    At the Chicago-based Gimix company, Richard Don, who handles
the marketing and operations, echoed the emphasis on small
business: ''Over 80 per cent of the home computer systems are
sold to the small business. That's where your big application
is at the present time.''
hb    (more) 11-09
 
 
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