SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION STUDY:
27% OF US HOUSEHOLDS OWN A PERSONAL COMPUTER

Third annual SPA survey shows today's educated, affluent buyers favor
souped-up multimedia, superhighway-ready machines.

March 15, 1994 (Washington, DC)--More than one quarter (27%) of American
households now own a personal computer, according to the third annual
study of computers in the home by the Software Publishers Association
(SPA), the principal trade association of the personal computer software
industry.

Falling prices for high performance, multimedia machines capable of
cruising the "information superhighway" have attracted droves of new
buyers in the past two years. While home computers have become smarter,
cheaper and faster, the SPA study shows that the people who buy them
remain clustered in a decidedly educated and affluent segment of the U.S.
population. Fully 60% of the personal computer using households in 1994
had attended or graduated from college. That compares with 51% of personal
computer-using household in 1993, and 21% of households in the general
population. Ownership among high school dropouts has plummeted to 2% in
1994, from 10% the previous year.

Household income levels of personal computer owners remain high and steady.
In both 1993 and 1994, about one quarter of computer households had
incomes over $75,000 (versus 10% of U.S. households), and about half had
incomes over $50,000 (versus 25% of U.S. households).

The study corroborates the view that the home personal computer market has
experienced explosive growth over the past two years. Nearly one-third
(31%) of computer households said they had purchased their computer in
1993 or early 1994. An additional quarter (24%) purchased in 1992. Not
surprisingly, the more recently purchased computers tend to be more
powerful and more fully loaded. Among the survey findings:

* Multimedia machines (those equipped with CD-ROM drives) accounted for 37%
of home computers purchased in 1993-94, versus 19% in 1991 and earlier.
Sound cards zoomed from 4% to 19%.

* "Superhighway-ready" computers (those equipped with a modem) accounted
for 62% of sales in 1993-394, versus 39% in 1991. Sales of computers
equipped with fax boards more than doubled to 35% from 17%.

* More powerful central processors are in today's home computers. Among IBM
compatibles (which account for 70% of the total market), 486 Intel chips
power 40% of computers purchased in 1993-94, versus 18% in 1992 purchases
and 3% in 1991 and earlier. Intel 286 processors, which powered 17% of
home computers purchased in 1991 and earlier were used in only 4% of newly
purchased machines.

* Graphical user interface is more popular than ever. More than three
quarters (76%) of newly purchased IBM compatibles now use Microsoft's
Windows 3.X operating environment, versus 63% in 1992 and only 14% in 1991
and earlier.

Usage Patterns Constant

The study found little change in software usage patterns. Though
respondents say they use slightly fewer programs overall, word processing,
spreadsheets and entertainment/games remained the top three applications
for home use. Personal finance packages replaced graphics/drawing programs
in the number four slot.

More highly educated households and those with newer computers were likely
to use a greater variety of programs, particularly entertainment, personal
finance, children's education and calendar packages. Lower income
households (annual income under $25,000) were more likely to use
entertainment, adult education and word processing programs. Upper income
households (annual income over $75,000) were most likely to use
telecommunications software and on-line information services.

Buying Versus Stealing Software

Home computer users today are slightly less inclined to steal copyrighted
software by copying it from a friend or co-worker. The survey indicated
that people are 2-3 times more likely to purchase software than illegally
copy it, a slight reduction from the previous year's survey.
Games/entertainment software remain the most likely programs to he
copied.

Computer stores and computer software stores were most commonly mentioned
as the places where respondents had purchased software. General
merchandise stores, mail-order and direct-from-the-publisher were the only
other types of outlets mentioned by at least 10% of the respondents.

Point of Purchase Displays Influential

While the majority of purchases said that they knew the exact title of the
software they wanted to purchase when they last bought software, a
substantial minority were influenced by point-of-purchase marketing. Among
entertainment software purchasers, 26% said they know the type of software
they wanted to purchase, but hadn't selected a title, while another 15%
hadn't even originally planned to buy software. Among education software
buyers, 34% were shopping without a specific title in mind, while 10%
hadn't planned to buy.

The survey was conducted in January and February, 1994, and paralleled the
SPA's studies in 1992 and 1993. The interviews identified the personal
computer and video game system hardware in the household. Four personal
computer software categories were studied: entertainment, education,
personal productivity, and business software used for a home-based
business. Also analyzed were the number of personal computer and video
game applications in the household, acquisition sources for software and
the importance of a series of factors in their software purchase
decisions.

The Software Publishers Association is the principal trade association of
the personal computer software industry. Its more than 1000 members
represent the leading publishers in the business, consumer and education
markets. The SPA has offices in Washington, DC and Paris, France.

Software Publishers Association
1730 M St, Northwest, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036
202-452-1600,  Fax: 202-223-8756

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