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[Pathfinder] Top computer makers admit it: They are confusing consumers

October 7, 1996 [grfk] Web posted at: 8:45 p.m. EDT

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (Reuter) -- Some of the computer industry's leading spokesmen admitted Monday that they use too many buzzwords and build complicated products that are not always useful in everyday life.

A blue-ribbon panel from Silicon Valley and elsewhere agreed that building easier-to-use products was the best way of bringing more people into the new digital world.

They also said consumers have been bombarded with needless software updates while being distracted by competing software "wars" waged by the big computer players.

"People do want more stability," said Ted Waite, chairman of Gateway 2000, one of the largest direct personal computer sellers. Waite said consumers have every right to be frustrated with personal computers that have become difficult to use and cost too much to maintain.

Speaking at an annual Gartner Group computer conference, the executives said consumers were confused by a huge selection of products.

"We are tyrannized by the amount of choices," said Gary Fernandes, vice chairman of the consulting firm EDS Corp. "The product life cycle is getting smaller and smaller."

The executives said there has been too much emphasis on the various competing operating software "platforms" available while the market was also being hurt by software updates that offer very little in useful new features.

They also said the industry needs to drop the jargon and speak clearer so consumers can make proper choices.

"We have technical clutter," said Fernandes. "We speak in buzzwords and acronyms."

With only about 10 percent of the world having access to a personal computer, one of the bigger challenges facing the industry was bringing more people into the new digital environment, said Gilbert Amelio, chairman and CEO of Apple Computer Inc.

He said the quickest way to do that was to bring to market products that make a difference in people's lives.

He said all the attention focused on the so-called "browser wars" -- on whether Microsoft Corp. or Netscape Communications Corp. offered better software to cruise the Internet -- was a waste of time.

Browsing was essentially an unproductive activity, Amelio said. Companies need to focus on making products that make the Internet a useful tool for finding information and communicating.

"Browsing has a negative productivity factor, instead of a positive one. The question is how do we get people more productive," he said.

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