Intel Sees Computer Mkt At 1m Units

The size of the computer market in the country is expected to touch the one million units mark this year, according to Intel Corporation estimates.

The market is growing at the rate of 50 per cent per annum and will continue to do so for the next three years, said Atul Vijayakar, director, South Asia Intel Corporation.

He added that the home segment constituted 20 per cent of the total sales. Introducing the Pentium II processor, Vijaykar said its visual and data processing abilities offered exciting opportunities in the field of education, tourism and interactive creativity.

The Pentium II processor combines the advanced technologies of the Pentium Pro processor with the capabilities of MMX's media-enhancement technology and brings users the most advanced processor for running the latest audio-, video- and graphics-rich consumer software.

Vijaykar said the lowest priced system with a Pentium II processor now costs Rs 65,000 and is expected to fall to Rs 50,000 in the coming 12 to 18 months.

He said the Pentium II processor which had been launched barely six months ago in the US had already hit the "mainstream price point" of $2000 there. The popular 486 processor took about four years to hit the price point, an internal Intel benchmark, he added.

In keeping with Intel's track record so far, the price of the microprocessor was also expected to come down every quarter, Vijayakar said.