CII STUDY UNCOVERS CLEAR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FIRST TIME PC BUYERS AND
REPEAT PURCHASERS

Lower Income Households Seen to be Joining the PC Revolution

LA JOLLA, Calif., July 18, 1995 -- First time PC buyers clearly differ from
repeat purchasers in their buying habits, demographic profiles and usage
patterns, according to a new study from Computer Intelligence InfoCorp.

CII's Consumer Technology Index (CTI), the largest, most comprehensive
survey of personal computer usage in the U.S., found the PC market
expanding to include broader audiences and to reach lower-income
households. In addition to compiling demographic profiles of respondents
who use PCs at home or who are self-employed home PC users, the CTI study
analyzed differences among first time and repeat buyers. The study defines
new buyers as those who purchased their first PC in 1994. Repeat buyers
are those who bought a PC to replace an existing machine or as an
additional PC.

The CTI study found that first time PC buyers have a lower income profile
than do repeat buyers. Nearly half of first time buyers had annual
household incomes under $40,000, while just over one-third of repeat
buyers fell into that same income bracket. The CTI study further revealed
that 70 percent of non-PC households have annual incomes lower than
$40,000; by contrast, 63 percent of households where PCs are present have
incomes above $40,000.

1994 U.S. Consumer Market Household Income Levels

               First Time Buyers      Repeat Buyers

 Under $40K           46%                   35%
 Under $60K           74%                   60%
 Over  $60K           26%                   40%

Source: CII Consumer Technology Index 1995

PC sales growth in recent years has been largely fueled by purchases for
the home, said David Tremblay, CII's Senior Analyst for PCs. Growth of the
lower-income home market is good news for computer manufacturers who ran
the risk of seeing their sales slow as the high income home market became
saturated.

In addition to having lower median household incomes, the CTI study found
that first-time buyers are, on average, more likely to have children and
to have less education than their more experienced PC-buying
counterparts.

While the types of software used by the groups are very similar, the CTI
study revealed that repeat buyers use, on average, one more category of
software than do first-timers, due mainly to the greater length of time
they've had to purchase software. The Top 5 applications are the same
across both groups -- word processors, personal finance, spreadsheets,
integrated productivity (works) packages and graphics. In general, more
repeat buyers reported using each type of software than did new buyers.
Integrated packages are the exception because they often come pre-loaded
on the computer.

Repeat buyers are also ahead of first-timers on the weekly usage curve; 38
percent of repeat buyers use their computers 20 or more hours each week,
while only 28 percent of new users spend that much time at the keyboard.

Differences in purchase sources also emerged from the CTI study, with
repeat buyers gravitating toward the more traditional computer industry
channels. First time buyers are more likely to buy their PCs from a
consumer electronics store or from an individual, while repeat buyers are
more likely to rely on a computer dealer or a mail order manufacturer.

1994 U.S. Consumer Market Hardware Purchase by Channel

                                First Time Buyers        Repeat Buyers

 Computer dealers                     15%                     24%
 Consumer electronics store           18%                     13%
 Mail order from manufacturer          7%                     11%
 Bought from individual               19%                     11%

Source: CII Consumer Technology Index 1995

In today's increasingly mass market PC industry, strong performance across
multiple channels is crucial to a company's success, noted Tremblay. The
CTI study shows that manufacturers must have broad distribution across
numerous channels to reach the majority of PC buyers.

CII's annual Consumer Technology Index study is the largest, most
comprehensive survey of personal computer usage in the United States. The
annual 12-page survey polls more than 16,000 individuals throughout the
U.S. on the types and brands of equipment used at home and in the
workplace. The survey also gathers extensive demographic information from
respondents and ascertains their future PC purchase plans.

Computer Intelligence InfoCorp is the leading source of fact-based
information for the computer and communications industries. CII's
extensive research capabilities provide a wide variety of products and
services that help computer and communications companies sell and market
more effectively. All of the company's products and services are based on
proprietary information databases built and maintained by CII specialists.
Headquartered in La Jolla, Computer Intelligence InfoCorp has offices in
Boston, Farmington, Conn., Mountain View, Calif., and Europe.
 
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