Software seen as key to hardware sales

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 21

Software seen as key to hardware sales

Effective and well presented software is driving computer hardware sales overseas, according to Mr Phil Norman, the general manager of Interactive Applications, Ltd. Mr Norman recently returned from the Comdex computer industry exhibition in the United States. The giant week-long trade exhibition and conference highlighted the solutionsoriented direction of the microcomputer market worldwide, Mr Norman said. “Comdex showed that good software drives hardware sales in a way that we didn’t see five years ago,” he said. Mr Norman said the exhibition emphasised the trend away from the former heavy reliance on machinedependent software to 16-bit machines using MS-DOS products. Transportability across a number of different makes of hardware was also an increasingly important factor. While the Japanese companies continued to show great strength in the development of machine operating systems, trends in applications tended still to be set in the United States. However, Mr Norman did predict that in 1984 there

would be a more noticeable presence by Japan in the applications software and personal-computer sector. The exhibition, which is one of a series of similar displays held annually in a number of American cities, provided a valuable insight into international trends in microcomputers and software, Mr Norman said. These included more graphics and colour tools which had already proved useful in business and commercial packages. Much more extensive use would be made of “windowing,” allowing a non-techni-cal user better access to all the functions of a system, and enabling multi-use of these on the screen at one time. Networking would grow in international importance, and particularly in New Zealand, where distributed microcomputers would be linked to large mainframe computers in commercial head offices. Software standards in this area would be set more realistically by the market place itself rather than any standards organisation, Mr Norman said. The use of local area networks (LANs) in business would increase because of the versatility they provided in allowing individual

machines to be plugged into the side of a LAN cable. The next phase in communications technology development in New Zealand would be closely tied to the Post Office adoption of packet switching, which was already well established overseas, Mr Norman said. Another software development which was increasingly common overseas was the use of a mouse, or pointing device on the screen, to emphasise parts of the text. All these developments would be seen in New Zealand in the next few months, Mr Norman said. lAL planned to incorporate a number of these techniques in the company’s revised products, he said. “We go to shows like Comdex, to observe international trends, digest, understand and build them into our own products,” Mr Norman said. “We’ve got to get good at second-guessing,” he said. “Companies such as IBM undoubtedly play a major role in establishing the market, but there is also a desperate need for a lot of small, start-up companies funded by venture capitalists, whose thinking is entrepreneurial rather than corporate.”