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Glass house apps show more movement toward Windows, UNIX and NetWare, while OS/2 and proprietary solutions are down in our annual mini/microcomputer survey. Mark your calendars: 1992 looks to be […]

Despite Woes, Oil Firms Expand Exploration Drive In the late 1970s, the energy industry was king. It certainly was not efficient by any measure, but then it didn't have to […]

After Government Success, Zenith Eyes the Business Market By most accounts, the battle lines in the world of personal computers are mapped out like this: Big Blue battles upstart Compaq […]

Clone Makers Treading Softly On PS/2 Micro Channel Turf It's a race that no one wants to finish first. As microcomputer companies begin to decipher the intricacies of IBM's Micro [...]

Many PC clone manufacturers are developing Micro Channel-compatible products, but they will be slow to introduce such products pending the availability of the OS-2 Extended Edition operating system, slated for arrival in late 1988. The Micro Channel architecture allows IBM's PS-2 microcomputer to perform several functions at the same time. Clone makers may face legal battles with IBM following the introduction of Micro Channel- and PS-2-compatible products that infringe on IBM patents, although IBM admits that legal PS-2 clones are inevitable.

Shaken by Price Erosion, 3270 Market Continues to Slide For companies that were said to have products about to be relegated to the scrap heap a few years ago, computer [...]

Makers of IBM 3270-compatible terminals continue to see price and demand decline. Terminal pricing has been lowered, in response to falling microcomputer prices. The market for 3270 terminals shrunk for the first time in 1986, by 7 percent. Yet, the 3270 installed base is bigger than ever. The replacement market and price discounting are becoming lucrative marketing avenues. Hewlett-Packard entered the IBM-compatible terminal market in 1987. IBM has taken an aggressive market stance: more 3270 product introductions in 1987 than in the entire decade earlier. Makers of 3270-compatibles are producing innovative products at lower prices. A terminal maker like Telex Corp has seen tough going as new products outside the 3270-compatible market have been slow to get off the ground.

dBase IV Delay Riles Users, Developers For the many microcomputer managers who deal with database management software, the waiting period for the latest version of Ashton-Tate's market-leading dBase has proven […]

PostScript Clone Makers Are Facing an Uphill Climb The starting gun officially went off when IBM anointed PostScript as its page description language of choice early last year. Since then, […]

The PC Perspective Cooperative processing means different things to different people, depending on what kind of equipment they use. As might be expected, corporate personal computer users and suppliers have […]

Further Shrinkage Expected in Oil Field Industry HOUSTON--Depsite the record number of industry consolidations in 1986, oil field equipment and service comapnies can expect more joint ventures, mergers and bankruptcy [...]

AF Upgrade of Repair Plants To Encompass Composites SACRAMENTO, Calif.--The Air Force, which has been spending heavily on automating its repair facilities, is moving them heavily into the composites area [...]

Micro Software Merger Trend Seen As Little Affected by Crash The spate of consolidations, mergers, and acquisitions in the microcomputer software industry may be briefly stymied by the Oct. 19 [...]

The Oct 19, 1987 stock market crash may slow the rate of consolidations, mergers, and acquisitions in the software industry, but industry observers believe it is unlikely to halt the 16-year pattern altogether. Acquisitions and mergers in the software industry usually occur for strategic business reasons based on the expanding software market. Innovative Software Inc and Informix Corp, for example, began by looking at a joint venture, then merged when it became clear that a merger offered greater advantages for both companies. Symantec Corp views acquisition of technology as part of its long-range strategy for growth, with the side benefit of saving money on research and development. Small companies which had planned to go public before the Oct 19 crash may now find the opportunity closed to them because of lowered stock prices.

Joint Development Deals Lure Banks, Software Vendors The development of banking applications software has never been an easy chore. Once largely the domain of the banks themselves, a number of [...]

Most corporate information centers are moving slowly in their acquisition of IBM PS-2 microcomputers. The migration to the 3.5-inch disk drive format and the varying timetables of introductions of applications programs in the 3.5-inch format make the conversion to PS-2s more difficult. Many managers choose to acquire a few new machines at first and work them into the work flow gradually. Other companies choose to acquire a small number of PS-2s for evaluation before committing to the systems as their microcomputer standard. StoreBoard Inc market researcher JoeAnn Stahel claims the practice of slow adoption of a new product is not unusual; she claims the introduction of products representing new technologies are often accompanied by a decline in overall sales. Markets in which the PS-2s are doing well, how the competition is reacting to the PS-2, and the models in the PS-2 series are

Users Adopt Cautious Stance On Purchases of IBM's PS/2 If football is a game of inches, then the game that information center directors are playing as they cope with problems [...]

Top US banks are entering software development ventures with third-party software applications houses in an effort to furnish software alternatives for EDP professionals in banking and financial services. Players in the banking software market, especially in the IBM market, are beginning to focus on marketing software and are decreasing their emphasis on technology and automation products. Bank-vendor accords result in lower development costs for banks, while giving the banks valuable input as to the development of new and quality software. Cullinet Software has entered a joint development agreement with American Express Bank for the development of a version of the Banking System from Cullinet for the global market.

Cooper Keeps Focus On Manufacturing Although its strong acquisition push may finally win it recognition from analysts, Cooper Industries Inc. apparently isn't ready to abandon the tight focus on manufacturing [...]

Cooper Signs Pact to Buy Joy Operation Agrees to Pay $140M For Compressor Unit Acquisition-minded Cooper Industries Inc., having already purchased the petroleum equipment division of Joy Technologies Inc. at [...]

Outboard Marine Reaping Benefits Of Restructuring A $100 million restructuring of its manufacturing plants is bearing fruit, and Outboard Marine Corp. (OMC) is reaping the benefits in terms of efficiency [...]

LTV to Build $150M Facility For Composites Viewed as Source For 'Stealth'Parts LTV Corp.'s Aircraft Products Group plans to build a $150 million plant to produce aerospace composite parts, presumably [...]

Workers OK Labor Pact At Case IH Contract Guarantees 100% Job Security United Auto Workers employed at Tenneco Inc.'s Case IH unit last week ratified a 39-month contract that guarantees [...]

Downsize Is Key Word at Offshore Tech Parley Smaller Show Is Attended by Fewer, More Consolidated Firms Downsize was the key word, literally and figuratively, at the annual Offshore Technology [...]

Camco Moving Full Speed to CIM Maker of Oil Patch Goods Spending All Its Income on Equipment In a sector where cutbacks, closings and consolidations are the bywords, oil field [...]

Bootleg Parts Posing Threast In Oil Patch Bootleg spare parts for oil field equipment have grown into a big headache for oil field equipment manufacturers and drilling contractors since the [...]

Placid's New Deep Water Platform Gets Final OK BY ROBERT FRANCIS DALLAS -- Placid Oil Co.'s innovative deep water production platform planned for the Gulf of Mexico, caught in the [...]

Greyhound Will Move GM Bus Line to N.M. ROSWELL, N.M. -- Greyhound Corp.'s Transportation Manufacturing Corp., which recently purchased General Motors Corp.'s transit bus manufacturing line, said it plans to [...]

Congress Puts High-Speed RR On Fast Track Bills Eye Bond Funds; Florida May Be First NEWS ROUNDUP WASHINGTON -- Long-simmering proposals for various high-speed rail projects in the U.S. are [...]

LTV Cites Automated Wire Harness System Benefits By ROBERT FRANCIS DALLAS -- An automated wire harness system at LTV Aircraft Products Group, used primarily for the B-1B bomber and A-7 [...]

Oil Patch, Although Slumping, Still Hotbed of Tech Activity Equipment Suppliers Scrambling to Keep Up By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Business may be slow in the oil patch right now, [...]

Cooper Finally to Get W-K-M Unit Firm Had Bid Two Years Earlier at Over Four Times the $50M Price By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Cooper Industries Inc., acquisition-minded despite the [...]

GD Begins $100M Factory of Future Groundwork Laid for Full Computer Integration in Fort Worth by 1993 By ROBERT FRANCIS FORT WORTH, Texas -- General Dynamics Corp.'s aircraft assembly plant [...]

Tool Management Systems Aid Flexible Manufacturing By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- As major manufacturers begin to integrate flexible and automated manufacturing into their operations, tool management and handling systems have [...]

True Temper Seeks New Ventures for Tube By ROBERT FRANCIS MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- True Temper Sports, long a leader in the manufacture of golf club shafts, is swinging into action [...]

Hinderliter, Surgery Completed, Plans Active Future By ROBERT FRANCIS TULSA Okla. -- At Hinderliter Industries Inc. a year-end flurry of activity the sale of one division, the return to the [...]

States Vie for Supercollider Project BY MARK SFILIGOJ and ROBERT FRANCIS WASHINGTON -- The approval by the White House of the $4.4 billion Super-conducting Super Collider (SSC) project means that [...]

US, China Researchers Closing In on Threshold For Superconductivity By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Researchers in the United States and China say they are closing in on a superconductivity threshold [...]

Cast of Firms In Navy Ramp Program Shifts By ROBERT FRANCIS CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Navy this week will gather a slightly changed cast of companies here to unveil further [...]

Elusive Pipe Fitting Pickup Seen at Hand By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Makers of pipe fittings, some of them disappointed at not already seeing a pickup, are looking for business [...]

Lure of Offshore Production Losing Some of Its Luster Several Firms Move Output Back to the US NEWS ROUNDUP A decision last week by Innovative Controls Inc. to move primary [...]

TI Eyes Growth In Industrial Automation By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Despite the apparent cancellation of an important contract late last year, Texas Instruments Inc. officials say industrial automation remains [...]

Composites Project Calls For Advanced Inspection Systems By ROBERT FRANCIS FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.'s $100 million equipment program for composites manufacturing calls for the use of [...]

Assembly Simplification Key to AF Airframe Plant By ROBERT FRANCIS FORT WORTH, Texas -- The first phase of a $25 million Air Force project to develop a fully integrated airframe [...]

Camco Enters Drilling Sector Via Reed Buy By ROBERT FRANCIS HOUSTON -- Camco Inc., until now limited to playing ball in the production end of the oil field equipment business, [...]

Plant Automation: TI Still Optimistic About the Market By ROBERT FRANCIS DALLAS -- In spite of slowdowns among some customers for its industrial automation push, particularly in the automotive industry, [...]

Copter Makers Seek Markets To Offset Oil Patch Depression Government Sales Continue to Increase By ROBERT FRANCIS DALLAS -- With its annual trade show set hovering in the middle of [...]

Maturing Pc User Groups Gaining Clout with Developers A casual observer of a local pc user group meeting might think the world had turned up-side down. A man in a […]

Interest in PS/2 Is Strong But Adoption May Take Years IBM's now-one-year-old line of PS/2 personal computers has captured the imagination--if not the purse strings--of IS and corporate pc purchase […]

Apple-Microsoft Suit Raises Issue of Vague Copyright Laws It took many in the industry by surprise, but maybe it shouldn't have. Apple Computer Inc.'s March lawsuit charging Microsoft Corp. and […]