IBM is believed to be set to emulate the Coca Cola company and reintroduce its equivalent of Coke Classic in the shape of the Personal Computer AT – in the guise of a PS/2 Model 35. PC Week believes that the 80286-based machine, with an AT bus but with the VGA graphics from PS/2, will come out in the US next month, at between $2,000 and $3,000. If the reports proves true, it will be a devastating admission by IBM that its strategy to bury the old standard Personal Computer under machines using its MicroChannel Architecture has failed. All the signs are that while the PS/2 is doing fairly well in corporate accounts, sales through dealers and retail outlets are far short of IBM’s targets, if not downright dismal. And almost all the press on the PS/2 machines is generated from what people in the latter markets are saying, and the negative press must in turn put a damper on corporate sales – those guys read the PC magazines too. The big question about any PS/2 Model 35 is whether it will be a full-function machine, or will be limited to three expansion slots like the Model 30. If the latter, it will be the equivalent of IBM putting out Coca Cola Classic with a little hole in the bottom of each bottle, and will simultaneously revalidate the AT clone market and ensure that IBM sells very few of the new machines.
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