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Date: November 13, 1991

Title: Focus/Office Computers/The Consumer Is Left Confused as the Battle Between the IBM World and The Mac World Continues

Author: William Kennedy

When God created the world he made little boys and little girls. They are very much alike, but they are also very different. When humans made personal computers, they divided the world into two equally similar, but also equally very different, parts. There is the world of DOS and the world of Macintosh. (Actually before DOS there was CP/M, but that was prehistoric; and in the future there may be UNIX, but that is tomorrowland.)

The chances are that you are in one world or the other. Only a few brave souls live in both. Inhabitants of the DOS world use IBM or so-called IBM-compatible machines, and they usually swear by them. Residents of the Mac are equally devoted to their computers.

DOS is the first operating sustem for the original IBM PC, and the brave pioneers who ventured into personal computers a decade ago got used to the sometime arcane instructions needed to run their machines. DOS, however, was very successful, and is still perhaps the best system for number-intensive projects.

Only later came the Macintosh. First the Mac was a tool for computer nerds and groupies who followed Steve Jobs, Apple”s co-founder and father of the Macintosh. The machine came out in 1984, and it was supposed to slay everything in the world of DOS. In fact, DOS machines still outnumber Macs by a ratio of 8-to-1. But the Mac eventually found its market . Graphics designers favor the Mac and have used it to create a new technology called desktop design and publishing. A typical Mac user is Performance Photo in Oldwick. Al Lake, a photographer with 20 years experience, uses Macs and a variety of electronic cameras, video technology and color scanners to produce state-of-the-art slides, prints and transparencies.

The PC industry suffers from vicious infighting and vitriolic competition. Two long-term enemies, Apple and IBM, this summer joined forces to arrest the unrestrained growth of Microsoft, now the leading developer of operating systems and software applications. IBM and Microsoft split over whether Microsoft”s Windows or IBM”s OS2 should be the heir for DOS. When it was introduced a year ago, Windows 3.0 took off with unprecedented sales, and OS2 was more or less shunted by software developers eager to jump on the Windows bandwagon.

No one has determined thus far what all these alliances and counter-alliances do to the computer user and buyer of software. How does a firm guard against technological obsolescence in an industry that alters standards with such capricious whim?

The DOS world for months has been dominated by the battle over Windows, and for now Microsoft seems to be the winner. “Microsoft has totally dominated the market,” says Dennis Lytle, president of Princeton PC Systems, a dealer and consultant in computer systems. “OS2 is now an orphan.”

Richard Kaplan of Rosenberg, Druker & Co., the accounting firm, advises clients to stay in the long DOS environment for now. He finds that Windows crashes too ofen and causes problems, particularly when used in a network (see pg. 32). Kaplan, though, may be changing his view as more software comes on line for Windows. WordPerfect, the best-selling word processing software for DOS, will soon be available.

Meanwhile in the Mac world new equipment is coming out, and users are still getting used to the new 7.0 operating system.

While DOS fans and Mac fans are slugging it out, a still large segment of the business world has still to lay a hand on a computer keyboard on a reglar basis. PC-phobia is alive and well and living in many corporate suites, and many machines are more for decoration than actual use. According to Princeton PCSystem”s Lytle, “PCs are only used at 10-15% of their potential.” A recent study of 377 Princeton area firms by LAN Solutions showed that 63 companies, 16% of those questioned, do not use PCs at all!

One of the primary reasons computer use is lower than expected is that the machines and software are often maddening to use. People are right to be computerphobic. As a result, companies often have to spend thousands of dollars in training staffs to realize the investments they have made in computers and software. “According to a recent study by Dataquest, about 70% of a company”s computer operating cost is now spent on training and support,” explains Joseph Deal, who heads the new Princeton office of ExecuTrain, the nation”s largest computer training and support company.

Deal states that proper training can increase the user”s productivity from 20% to 40% and is a significant return on the investment in training. The Dataquest report states that the high-tech training market is currently estimated at $1.4 billion and will double by 1995.

As PCs become more and more commonplace in the business marketplace, companies will need trained, skilled users who can maximize the potential of the technology sitting on their desktop. Until the computer industry learns to focus its efforts on products that are really easy to use and that enhance productivity across the board, companies will continue to find that their employees are not using the machines to their full capacity and that the firms are not getting the most bang for their buck.

BOX: Buyer”s Guide

Both a Mac and a PC will work well in an office. The final decision on which to buy usually comes down to a question of cost and use. You can get an IBM compatible for much less than a Mac, but if you use a lot of graphics or do desktop publishing you should consider spending the extra money to get a Mac.

Once that decision has been taken, there are several more decisions you have to face. The first is the size of the central processing uit, which is the computer”s engine. The smallest PC that you should buy is a 286 model, but get a 386SX or 486 if you spring for it. Among Macs, the Classic is the equivalent of the 286 and has limited power. A Mac LC or IIsi will serve you longer and better.

A hard disk is a must these days in business. Most small firms can get along with 40 megabye hard disks, but buy 80 megabyte ones if you have large databases or use a lot of graphics.

If you don”t want to stand around waiting forever for your machine to do its thing, get plenty of random access memory. Two megabytes is a minimum now, and four is even better.