Changes

''"Most of the people we get calls onfor Atari want games," MccutcheonMcCutcheon comments. "The same for the Commodore.Most of the calls for the TI arefor education and small business.There's still a difference in the way themarket reacts." He says it's hard to say whether TIowners spend more or less on theircomputers than owners of otherbrands. "If we had the peripheral equipmentI'd say more,'' he says. '' "A lot of peopleare not even thinking of switchingover."''"From our experience, our researchshows that the average buyer willspend 20 percent more on software andperipherals than on the computer,"says Reitan. However, the TI user spends ahigher percentage on these itemsbecause of the low base price of thecomputer. In Lul;)bockLubbock-the site of a TexasInstruments plant-' '"95 percent of ourcustomers are fierce and loyal to theTI," he says. He notes that with the TI "adding 100percent of the peripherals it's still aheck of c1 a value" compared, for example,to the IBM PC-Junior. Smith thinks thc..1t that TI users spend asmuch on their systems as users ofother computers "in the long. run.Maybe they're not as fast to do it.··"  She speculates that TI may have gotout because of not having the"patience to wait for the aftermarket." She notes that Tree of Knowledge islocated in the center of the downtownbusiness district. "We're not seeing the people who goout to K-Mart," she says. DeMars says customers are "all inabout the same market. Some customersbuy the computer because it'sinexpensive and don't plan to expand.Others spend $1,000. They still get agood deal. Some expand very slowly." He notes that "the typical Atari consumeris out for a game machine. TheCommodore is more difficult to use fora beginner than a TI. Most people areimpressed with the quality of software,educational and home stuff, forthe TI. We sell it to a lot of businesspeople, too." "The majority of the TI market areprobably computer illiterates now,"Ficklin says. "Six months again thatwasn't the case. The recent buyersafter the price cuts expected to get afully functional computer without havingto program it or buy anything fordata storage when they plugged it inafter Christmas. This isn't anyone'sfault, just the general state of knowledgeabout computers. Now probablymost of them are in the closet.''" ==HOW LONG TI?==