Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Wed, May 13 1992 Date: Wed, 13 May 92 05:40:09 EDT Message-ID: 05-13 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update May 13, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network WAL-MART TO SELL WANG PCS: Wal-Mart is going to become the first mass-market retailer to carry Wang personal computers. Wal-Mart says it plans to sell Wang's Alliance Series personal computers, for home and office use, at 850 of its 1,735 Wal-Mart stores in 40 states. STEALTH OK HAS STRINGS ATTACHED: The House Armed Services procurement panel Tuesday approved President Bush's plan to build 20 B-2 stealth bombers, but with two big conditions. The Air Force must first prove the B-2s won't cost more than $2.2 billion each, and that they can fulfill their radar-evading promise. GATEWAY IS GROWING RAPIDLY: CEO Ted Waitt has taken Gateway 2000 from a small two-man operation into a large maker of personal computers. It had revenue of $275 million in 1990 and $627 million last year and anticipates reaching $1 billion in 1993. Gateway was just named the fastest-growing company by Inc magazine. Tuesday, Waitt was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Small Business Administration. (For more, see special Gateway package below.) NEW PORTABLE ON MARKET: Lightning Computers Tuesday introduced a new portable computer which it bills as the most powerful portable ever built. It has 128MB or RAM and 2000MB of disk storage. It has a retail price starting at $4,995. Standard warranty terms are two years for parts and labor with on-site service and extended-term warranties optional. LOTUS UPGRADES SPREADSHEET: Lotus Development Corp. Tuesday introduced an upgrade of its popular spreadsheet. New features of Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS Release 2.4 include one-click access to frequently used spreadsheet commands and expanded support for printers. Available by May 25, prices start at $495. Customers who bought 1-2-3 between November 1, 1991 and May 31, 1992 can get an upgrade for $49. NAVIGATION SATELLITES IN FUTURE: Secretary of Transportation Andrew H. Card Jr. kicking off a demonstration of satellite technology in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, predicted that many of today's air, ground and maritime navigational systems may well be replaced by space-based systems. The demonstration uses the Global Positioning System network and includes live and taped demonstrations. GTE SELLING IBM PCRADIO: GTE Mobile Communications and IBM have signed an agreement which allows GTE to sell the IBM 9075 PCradio and provide cellular services using it. The cellular telephone has the capability of sending and receiving voice, fax and data telecommunications. GTE will sell the product at retail outlets and train customers on how to use it via GTE's cellular network. NOVELL ADDS NEW PROTOCOL: Novell Tuesday introduced its new Burst Mode protocol. Novell says the product significantly improves the performance of customers' wide- and local-area NetWare networks. Depending on the configuration, performance on wide-area networks can improve by as much as 300%, Novell says. It is now available to customers who subscribe to Novell's NetWare maintenance program at no charge. VEHICLE GROUP TO MEET: Thirty-five organizations will exhibit "smart" vehicle and highway technology at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Intelligent Vehicle Highway Society of America at the Newport Beach Mariott Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif., May 17-20. The meeting features 21 technical sessions. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON GATEWAY: EARNINGS ARE UP 137%: Gateway 2000 has grown from an informal, two-man operation based in an Iowa farmhouse to a bustling, 1,400-employee juggernaut that shipped more than 250,000 PCs last year. Pre-tax earnings for privately-held Gateway, whose moniker implies a gateway to the next century, soared 137% to $60 million last year. The 29-year-old responsible for that evolution is CEO Ted Waitt. FIRM HAS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: The Gateway story sounds hokey. College drop-out Ted Waitt and friend Mike Hammond start selling software for Texas Instruments computer. The two men then decide to start a mail-order computer company and begin assembling PCs. Waitt hits up his grandmother for a $10,000 certificate of deposit as collateral for a loan. The firm slowly becomes one of the top mail-order computer firms in the USA. GATEWAY ASSEMBLES PARTS: Gateway doesn't make a single computer component. It simply assembles parts bought from electronics firms here and abroad into PCs that mimic IBM's PS:2 line. There are also plans to introduce a notebook computer that will be custom produced by Texas Instruments. The move was made because Gateway would like to achieve more corporate sales, Waitt says. DELL, IBM COMPETE WITH GATEWAY: Gateway has stiff competition in the direct-order PC niche, particularly from Texas-based Dell Computer, which had 1991 revenue of $890 million. And industry-leader IBM just announced that it will enter the direct-order fray. Taking a page directly out of Gateway's book, Big Blue plans to sell low-priced PCs to those who dial a toll-free 800 number. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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