Apple Reference & Presen…rary 8 (Internal Edition)/Apple R&P Lib Internal v8.0.iso/3-Presentations/Apple Computer Inc./Industry Competition/ROMs/Portables/Zenith Portables 4⁄89

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Apple Confidential / Need to Know

April 28, 1988

From:     Dave Garr, Ken Lim


Zenith Announces New Portable Computer Line


Summary.  This Bulletin discusses Zenith’s new family of five portables ranging
from an 80C88-based system priced at $2,399 to a 386-based unit for $7,999.
These products contain several “firsts” in technology.  Zenith’s pricing for
the line is a bit high, but the products look good enough to keep Zenith near
the zenith of the portable PC market, which is becoming increasingly
competitive with desktop systems in terms of performance and value.

Overview.  Last week Zenith Data Systems announced its new portable family:
The SupersPort, the SupersPort 286, and the TurbosPort 386.  The SupersPort and
the SupersPort 286 are available now, and the TurbosPort 386 is expected in 30
to 60 days.  The existing Zenith portable line, the Z-181 and Z-183, will be
phased out of retail channels by year-end 1988, but will continue to be
manufactured for existing government contracts.  The SupersPort is made by
Mitsui in Japan; the others are manufactured at Zenith’s plant in Michigan.

All models sport full size 79-key keyboards, real-time clocks, serial,
parallel, RGBI, drive,  and 24-keypad ports, connector for external expansion
unit, automatic battery-charging and flip-out handles.  The TurbosPort’s
keyboard is detachable.  All support 5.25-inch external floppy drives and the
sytems can be configured to boot from any one of four drives.  The SupersPort
can use either 26 or 48 watt/hour batteries.  The 26 w/hr can be charged in
only 2 hours.

Strengths.  The Zenith portables have the following strengths compared to other
portables on the market:

•  Battery-powered.  The TurbosPort 386 is the first battery-powered 386
machine available, and the SupersPort 286 is the first battery-powered 286
machine available from a major manufacturer.  Thus, these machines provide
more power to users without access to an electrical outlet than has previously
been possible.  Also, the two low-end models give the user a choice of
different battery packs, with the trade-off being lighter weight or longer
operation.
•  Page-White LCD.  The "Page-White" LCD, which is only available on the
TurbosPort 386, is reportedly superior to existing displays on current
386-based portables.  The Page-White technologies include fluorescent
backlighting, compensated STN (super-twist nematic) LCDs, and doublescan CGA
text resolution.  The result is a 20:1 contrast ratio.  The screen also dis
plays 8 levels of gray in place of color.  Some analysts who have seen it rate
it as the most readable LCD screen on the market (although there is still some
flicker and uneven contrast.)
•  Intelligent Power Management.  The new line features "Intelligent Power
Management" which monitors the allocation of power to various subsystems
depending on the user's current operating mode.  This feature can save battery
life by lessening the power given to subsystems not needed frequently by the
user.  There is both an automatic and user-programmable mode.
•  Zero wait state processor.  Zenith's 286 and 386 portables use a zero wait
state architecture, which can significantly improve performance.  With this
design, the 12-MHz SupersPort 286 not only becomes the first mainstream
286-based battery-powered portable, but it rivals the speed of the fastest
286-based desktop machines.  The TurbosPort uses additional performance
enhancements such as 1:1 disk interleaving, 16-bit video interface and
“slushware,” Zenith’s term for transferring ROM firmware into RAM cache on
bootup.

Weaknesses.  The Zenith portables have the following weaknesses compared to
other portables on the market:

•  Expensive.  The Zenith portables are high priced.  For example, the
TurbosPort 386 is priced the same as the Compaq Portable 386, even though the
Compaq run at 20-MHz compared to the TurbosPort's 12-MHz.  Furthermore, Compaq
is thought to have the highest priced PCs.  (However, the Zenith buyer gets 40%
lower weight than the Compaq and battery-powered operation.)
•  Heavy at low-end.  The low-end Zenith portable, the SupersPort, weighs 12.25
to 14.86 pounds (depending on the battery used and whether it has a hard disk),
which is heavier than laptops from other leading vendors.  For example,
Toshiba's low-end portable, the T1000, weighs 6.4 pounds (it has a single
floppy).  Toshiba's hard disk portable (which runs at a higher clock speed than
the SupersPort) weighs only 11 pounds.

Distribution and service.  Zenith will be pushing the sPort line thru it direct
sales force, dealers, VARs and its company-owned HeathKit stores.  Major chains
signed up include BusinessLand, ComputerLand and The Computer Factory.  The
Zenith IQ (Insured Quality) service plan offers several choices including
48-hour repair turnaround and next-day replacement.  Warranty is one year with
walk-in, mail-in and telephone services available.

Market Share.  Dataquest ranks Zenith in first place in 1987 true portable
(battery-powered) units with a 25.3% share of the U.S. market (a preliminary
total of 399,000 units).  Zenith has a narrow lead over Toshiba at 22% with
GRiD at 10.8%, NEC at 9.6% and Datavue at 8.3%.

Conclusion.  The SupersPort 286 and the TurbosPort 386 leapfrog past the
competition to become the high-end machine for people needing a battery-powered
portable.  The TurbosPort is especially attractive because of its Page-White
display that reportedly gives CRT quality video.  Both of these machines should
experience success at the high-end of the market.  However, the high price of
these portables and their relatively heavy weight may limit their acceptance at
the low-end of the market.  Zenith may be conceding the low-end of the
marketplace since Datavue, NEC, and Toshiba offer XT compatible laptops with
the same performance as the SupersPort but with lower weight and price.