Home PC penetration passes 50 percent

Home PC penetration passes 50 percent

In late 1998, U.S. household PC penetration crossed the 50 percent mark. Preliminary figures from a recent InfoBeads study show that 50.3 percent of U.S. homes had at least one PC installed at the end of 1998, up from 44.8 percent at year-end 1997, and up nearly 10 points from year-end 1996.

The preliminary figures indicate that nearly 6 million more U.S. households had a PC at the end of 1998 than had one just one year earlier.

The 5.5 point increase in penetration reflects the introduction of "inexpensive" Pentium-based multimedia PCs, which led to one of the all-time best Christmas PC-selling seasons and a 5.4 point jump in household PC penetration.

More information on the InfoBeads research is posted at Share: