Comdex/fall '82: More Byte For The Buck

The year's largest microcomputer show demonstrates that small businesspeople can get more capability in systems that are easier to use.

If you want to see the latest in computer equipment, the place to go is Las Vegas. For four days in November and December, the town is taken over by Comdex/Fall, the microcomputer industry's largest show. At the most recent exhibition, more than 1,000 computer hardware and software concerns and more than 50,000 people crowded the Las Vegas Convention Center, in an area seven times the size of a football field.

With so many manufacturers under one roof, Comdex is a good place for comparison shopping and ideal for spotting industry trends. Easier-to-use software, IBM Personal Computer compatibility, and more hard-disk capacity highlighted this season's show. But the best news for small businesses is that price/performance ratios are greatly improved -- not only in computer hardware, but for software and peripheral products, too.

"The prices of state-of-the-art systems tend to stay the same, but their capability increases drastically," says Aaron C. Goldberg, a research analyst at International Data Corp., of Framingham, Mass. "So small businesses can get more power this year for the same money they spent last year on computer products."

Many products at Comdex were production prototypes that barely made it off the drawing boards in time to be demonstrated at the show. Although many manufacturers quoted delivery dates far into 1983, the products themselves indicated the direction of industry leaders, both in hardware and software design.

In software, "integration" was the new buzzword. Software companies showed products that let users construct a financial model, sort information, change figures, plot them on a graph, and print out results, all without changing diskettes. Previously, users had to do each task separately, copy results on to a separate diskette, and then merge the operations.

"This type of integrated decision-support system is now cheap enough for the small business," says Goldberg. "For under $10,000 you can get the hardware and the new, easier-to-use software." But decision-support software, he warns, isn't solution software -- software that helps run day-to-day operations. "It's not as if someone has introduced a great new way to do general ledger," he explains. Says Mitchell Kapor, president of Lotus Development Corp., in Cambridge, Mass., which recently introduced its first integrated software package: "Good solution software for the small business is 12 to 24 months away."

Easier-to-use software tools, though, are evolving. Developers like Kapor have started exploiting two key elements in hardware technology: the powerful 16-bit microprocessor technology on which the next generation of hardware products is based and the drop in the cost of computer storage capability, or memory.

"More power leads to better software," says David Ferris, a software industry consultant in San Francisco and London. "The fact that there are 16-bit computers and more memory at a cheaper price means that it is easier for software developers to implement sophisticated programs." Most 16-bit computers come standard with at least 64K bytes of memory expandable to more than 256K bytes. By comparison, the popular Apple II uses an 8-bit microprocessor as its central processing unit and comes with a maximum of about 64,000 bytes of memory.

Second-generation software, as it is dubbed, allows users to do and see more at one time. It therefore takes the labor out of preparing reports that may include spreadsheet analysis, text, and graphics, since all these functions can be incorporated easily on one screen. VisiCorp, the company famous for the VisiCalc financial modeling package it markets, demonstrated a sophisticated approach to this type of software, which it calls VisiON.

Technically termed an "operating environment," rather than a software applications program, VisiON is a layer of software between the applications packages and user that allows users to give simple, English-language instructions rather than complicated commands. The program acts as a simultaneous translator: Both the machine and the user speak the language they understand best, and VisiON sits in the middle interpreting.

Instead of entering commands with a keyboard, users point a device called a "mouse," which acts like a video-game joystick, to control an arrow on the screen. The mouse is pointed at English-language commands, such as "help," and "transfer," displayed at the bottom of the screen. A button on the mouse is pressed to execute the command.

Users can open as many files as they wish and display them on the screen together. If the screen becomes too crowded, the mouse can be used to vary the page sizes. In this way it is simple to build a screen filled with different types of applications. Users can transfer information from one page to another by using the "transfer" command and pointing with the mouse to the information to be moved. These application screens can be piled on top of each other on the display monitor, much like pieces of paper piled on a cluttered desktop. A click of the mouse brings the chosen page to the top of the pile. A second button permits the text to scroll on the screen.

"Anyone can learn to use the system in 30 minutes," claims Daniel H. Fylstra, chairman of VisiCorp. "I really believe that something like VisiON running on a standard personal computer will be useful for managers and professionals and will be used widely in small businesses. The advantage is that you don't have to invest in specific hardware to run the software. Rather, you can choose the hardware that best suits your business, then buy VisiON to run the software."

VisiCorp plans to make the specifications of VisiON available to third-party software developers so they can design applications programs using the VisiON commands and the mouse. Programs already on the market, however, would have to be rewritten for the new software.

On cost, the company would say only that a package with VisiON and applications programs will be priced "aggressively." Fylstra says VisiCorp will offer its own applications software products for VisiON by the 1983 third quarter.

Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 (see INC., February, page 142) takes a different approach to integration. Unlike VisiON, it is a three-in-one applications program rather than an operating environment. For $495, it allows the user to create a financial spreadsheet, manipulate and sort the figures, and plot the results graphically on the same screen.

A similar program, MBA, from Context Management Systems in Torrance, Calif., has been marketed since last summer. MBA, at $695, is much slower and harder to use than 1-2-3 but has features 1-2-3 lacks. The user can integrate word processing with financial modeling and send and receive data from another computer.

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