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[ Go to January 1997 Table of Contents ]
News
-- by Diganta Majumder
It may not be a huge surprise, but Windows NT is set to make major inroads into U.S. corporations, large and small, and the Pentium Pro will be the CPU of choice. These are among the results of an International Data Corp. survey of 500 U.S. companies sponsored by PC maker AST. While not unexpected, the numbers are still significant. Information technology managers surveyed indicated that by fall 1997, there will be a 150 percent jump in NT usage. The news for the other favorite Windows flavor isn't too bad either: Windows 95 usage will go up by 50 percent in the same time frame. Conversely, Windows 3.x will register a 50 percent decrease. As for the microprocessor, 50 percent of the respondents polled reported that by the end of 1997, at least half of all new PC purchases will be Pentium Pro systems. The reasons for leapfrogging Windows 95, as many corporations have opted to do, are universal. Windows NT wins points for its reliability, security, performance and robustness-and the promise of lower costs in the long term. The Pentium Pro is favored for its performance, speed and the match of true 32-bit hardware and software.The survey also found that even within large corporations currently awash in dumb terminals, the market for network computers is small, perhaps as little as 10 percent. And finally, in a similar survey of European corporations, the migration rates are set to outpace those in the U.S.: Windows NT usage will jump by 525 percent in 1997. Copyright © 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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