Oxford-based Research Machines Plc has had a record first six months with pre-tax profits to March 31 up 204.1% to #155,000 on the same period last year. The company has also seen a 3.4% increase in turnover to #28.7m. Its half-yearly success story, as Research Machines puts it, is in part due to the National Council for Education & Technology’s #1.4m investment in multimedia Window Box personal computers for primary schools. But Research Machines’ main market is in secondary education where it claims a 52% market share. However, the company is not nearly so dominant in primary or further education where it has roughly a quarter of the share. The other main player in the computers for schools market is Acorn Computer Group Plc. Research Machines sees the fact that all its products are Windows-based as a major strength, whereas a certain other rival company’s aren’t. Mike Meyer, marketing communications manager, is also keen to point out that the company is not going down proprietary routes either. In line with the announcement of its financial results Research Machines has announced a new Pentium-based personal computer range in an attempt to jump aboard the multimedia bandwaggon and more importantly in the belief that falling prices for Pentium microprocessors will mean that they will become more accessible for schools. The Pentium Professional has 60MHz processor with 256Kb cache. It has 210Mb hard disk, 8Mb memory, MS-DOS and Windows. A 90MHz system will be available later on in the year. The 60MHz Pentium box will cost #1,780, which looks like a pretty competitive price, but schools are always so strapped for cash that even at that price it may take another National Council investment for them to take off.
