Research Paper on:
Personal Computer Industry of the United States

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the state of the personal computer (PC) industry with a truth painful for leading PC manufacturers: "seated in front of a PC with the name scratched off, you couldnt  tell the difference between an IBM and a Dell, Compaq or Gateway. And would you care? Probably not. Buying a PC today is no more complex than getting, say, a  toaster" (Greenfield, et al., 1999; p. 50). The PC industry has not yet gone into full scramble mode, but its leaders are casting  around for new directions that will forestall any such desperation maneuvers. Only a few years ago, PCs were rather expensive. They constituted significant business expense and excluded many  individuals from purchasing one for their homes. Even after prices had been dropping for a while, only 2 percent of all computers sold in 1998 were sold for under  $600. In 1999, that percentage had risen to 20 percent, with no end to the trend in sight. IBMs Lou Gerstner has proclaimed the PC age to be  dead. Changes in the Industry Steven Dukker, CEO of eMachines, notes that the PC industry  is "no longer a technology business. You dont need a team of engineers to build a PC today" Jerre L. Stead of the largest distributor of computer-related items Ingram  Micro said no one should be surprised to see nearly flat growth in PC revenue (Burrows and Sager, 1999). The year was not  as dismal as Stead and others had feared, partly because of last-half PC sales in anticipation of Y2K issues at the end of the century. Slower growth is not