Apple Targets Consumer Sales With New Lines

LAS VEGAS — In an adventurous attempt to expand and redefine the computer business, Apple Computer soon will produce a variety of consumer electronics products that could eventually spearhead the re-entry of American firms into markets now dominated by the Japanese.

Apple Chairman John A. Sculley told the annual Consumer Electronics Show here Thursday that his company will introduce later this year several new versions of the Macintosh computer that will be designed specifically for the consumer market and sold through mass-market retail stores.

Sculley also sketched out plans for a new class of consumer products--dubbed Personal Digital Assistants--that Apple will begin to introduce in 1993. Although the details were deliberately kept vague, the devices will be portable, easy-to-use, special-purpose computers that have advanced communications capabilities and the ability to display and manipulate text, sound and images.

Apple thus hopes to take a leadership role in what is widely regarded as a critical development in the electronics business: the merger of consumer electronics technologies--symbolized by the compact disc player and the hand-held video camera--with rapidly evolving personal computers.

This convergence has enormous significance for consumers, who will soon have a host of new types of entertainment, education, and personal productivity products to chose from. And it also promises to alter the balance of power in the electronics business, putting the U.S.-dominated computer industry on a collision course with the Japanese dominated consumer electronics industry.

“Personal computers are general purpose devices which require some level of skill to operate,” Sculley said. “On the other hand, most consumer electronics products have a particular defined usefulness . . . and they are relatively inexpensive. Personal Digital Assistants can be the meeting ground for the convergence of these two industries.”

Industry executives and analysts generally praised Apple’s ambition, but cautioned that the consumer strategy would be expensive and fraught with peril. “If there’s any company that’s positioned to do this, it’s Apple,” said H. Michael Morand, vice president of marketing at AST Research, the Irvine-based computer maker. “But it’s going to be a very expensive investment, and they’ll face intense competition from the Japanese giants.”

Japanese and European companies have come to dominate the business of producing mass-market electronics products, such as television sets, compact disc players and VCRs. American firms have continued to excel in the computer business but many believe it will be impossible to maintain this edge without playing a major role in the consumer electronics market.

Apple has pursued alliances with Japanese companies such as Sony, and Sculley indicated that alliances with Asian companies will be an important part of Apple’s consumer strategy.

Apple’s recent union with IBM will support development of some of the new consumer products, although that linkup is primarily focused on the corporate computer market.

Even as Apple pursues ventures with Japanese companies, though, it appears inevitable that it will also be competing head-on with the Japanese in some situations. Already, there are products on the market--such as Sony’s Data Disc, a hand-held device that can access reams of information from palm-sized discs--that are conceptually similar to Apple’s new product.

Similarly, in bringing the Macintosh computer to the consumer market, Apple will face competition from a variety of companies that now see the long-dormant home market as an important new opportunity. At this year’s electronics show, a number of computer companies that had never exhibited before were present, including Zenith Data Systems and AST.

Although Sculley provided no details, the new Macintosh models to be introduced later this year will apparently include even cheaper versions of the Macintosh Classic--which now costs only $800 in its basic configuration--that will come packaged with software and require nothing more than an electric outlet to operate.

In addition, Apple will introduce two new lines of Macintosh computers that have CD-ROM drives--a version of a compact disc--for storage of sound and visual information.

John Briesch, president of Sony Corp. of America’s consumer products group, said he agreed with much of what Sculley said Thursday. “There’s certainly an opportunity (for new entrants) as the industry shifts,” he said. But he also issued a challenge: “(Apple’s) forte is ease-of-use,” he said. “We like to think that Sony products are easy to use.”