Pc Manufacturers Add Electronic Gizmos To Appeal To Every Taste Intense Competition Fuels Efforts To Stand Out, Gain An Edge

Just when you thought there were as many brands of personal computers as bottled water, the industry has news: More manufacturers are leaping into the high-stakes PC game.

But instead of a price war, the surge of competition is resulting in novel features, software and other gizmos to distinguish brands. The trend is being fueled by the expertise of the new market entrants: Japanese consumer electronics giants, which are eager to find ways to mix and match computer technology with consumer electronics.

“The PC is a core component that enables the other technologies we have,” said Timothy Errington, senior vice president of Sony Information Technologies of America in San Jose. The entire nature of the personal computer in the home is beginning to change, he said.

Sony has just begun shipping its first desktop computer for the U.S. market. Toshiba Corp., the leading maker of notebook computers, is slated to debut its first desktop PC this month.

Competition also is picking up in the notebook-computer arena. Earlier this summer, Hitachi and Fujitsu both launched new lines of lighterweight computers. “We’ve got to play here,” said George W. Everhart, president of Fujitsu PC Corp. in Milpitas, Calif., and a former executive with Apple Computer Inc. Fujitsu ranks as the No. 6 seller of notebook computers internationally, he said, and now believes it is ready for the U.S. market.

Analysts have been gloomy about the growth of the U.S. personal computer market this year. According to San Jose-based research firm Dataquest Inc., the PC market in the United States is expected grow about 13 percent in 1996 - a more-languid pace than last year’s 21 percent growth.

Such predictions have not dissuaded the Japanese electronics giants. “Most of the Japanese vendors look at this as a multidecade kind of effort,” said Scott Miller, a senior industry analyst at Dataquest. “The stakes are for control of the U.S. household.”

Consider Toshiba, for example. Offering a desktop PC “seems like a natural thing, especially with all this discussion of ‘convergence,’ ” said Tom Scott, vice president and general manager of the computer-systems division of Toshiba America Information Systems in Irvine, Calif.

For Scott, “convergence” means creating a personal computer that’s “easy to use and relevant for not just business, but other factors of managing knowledge, including education, entertainment and communicating with friends,” he said.

Although Scott was reluctant to provide many details of Toshiba’s new PC until its official launch, he said the system will try to capitalize on Toshiba’s strengths in consumer electronics. “You’ll hear a lot about DVD,” or digital video disc, a new format that promises to pack more information on a disc than a conventional CD.

Errington agreed that early next year, consumers will see consumer electronics-computer combos.

“With DVD, you have a single format that can deliver movies, software, music” and so on, he said. With that technology, it becomes easy to imagine, for example, a 100-disc DVD changer that sits in a corner of the home and pipes information throughout - music to the dining room, computer programs to the den, movies to the living room.

But at least for this season, Sony’s computers won’t include DVD technology. Instead, Sony is relying on its strong consumer electronics brand name to convince consumers its personal computers will feature topnotch audio and video capabilities.

U.S. desktop PC makers are similarly scrambling to find ways to differentiate their products. For example, Acer America Corp., a pioneer in offering PCs in colors other than beige, this year is featuring a machine with a telephone receiver attached. It also is trying to segment its market by offering computers for home users that range in price from $1,200, without a monitor, to $3,000.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is including a color scanner in one model of its fall lineup. Compaq Computer Corp. has some PCs with a scanner, but also is trumpeting its 26-pound Presario 3000 with a flat panel screen, which is designed to be easily moved from one room in a home to another. It also features a four-disc CD changer and a cordless mouse.

“These are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mike Miller, editor in chief of PC Magazine in New York. “What the consumers ought to expect is more choices than before … some real choices for home-targeted computers.”