IBM Corp has a way of setting absurdly conservative projections for what are generally perceived to be hot new products, and the IBM-watching fraternity increasingly suspects that the company does this deliberately so that when sales exceed its uncharacteristically modest forecast, it can say that sales are exceeding all expectations, so no-one will set too much store by the fact that the company says that demand for all its new personal computer products introduced this autumn have exceeded original expectations; Sam Inman, president of the IBM Personal Computer Co, North America, said it is seeing the greatest demand for its PS/1 line, which is selling almost four times the volume compared with its (lacklustre) predecessor in the first half of 1992; he also said that the PS/2 premium computer line is also exceeding expectations – but it sees no problems meeting the demand in what everyone hopes will be a busy fourth quarter; We will scramble but we will catch it, Inman said of the PS/2 demand surge; IBM executives said they expect the bulk of personal computer revenues, about 70% of boxes shipped, to come from a combination of the PS/1 line and ValuePoint, with about 20-30 pct coming from the most expensive PS/2 line.
