This fall is predicted to be the biggest season for home computer sales in Canada, and one that is expected to drive the industry’s 1995 retail sales up over $3 billion compared with about $2.6 million last year.

Bill Fournier, senior market analyst for Evans Research of Toronto, says ‘if you look at the home market four or five years ago, there was no reason to want a pc in the home unless your children used them for school work or you had a home office.

‘Now, there’s just so much more your pc will do in terms of applications and online services, such as the Internet, which is obviously the most recent trend,’ Fournier says.

He says that sound, graphics and multimedia have made personal computers much more attractive and interesting, adding those capabilities have also boosted the average retail spending for a computer up $500 over last year.

‘One of the rules I’ve had over the last eight years is that it didn’t matter what you wanted, you were always going to spend about $2,000 for a personal computer,’ Fournier says.

‘All it meant was that if you bought it next year, you got more than last year for $2,000,’ he says.

‘That old rule doesn’t apply. People are spending more for their home pc, and, secondly, that cost will be more than the business user is spending.

‘Even now, the proportion of people who buy a pentium product for the home is higher than the number purchased for business.

‘You need more power at home, for things like multimedia, than you do at work.’

‘In addition, the tidal wave of interest that has been building up to this week’s release of Microsoft Windows 95 operating system requires more memory than the current 3.1 product, and many consumers will be upgrading their models to 486 or Pentium level.’

Canada’s computer industry traditionally has two seasons for the introduction of product: spring and early fall.

The fall promotions have started and are targeted to the back-to-school segment with everything-in-one-box offers: hardware and software, to give consumers all they need to get up and running.

Back-to-school offerings will be followed by the unveiling of new hardware designed to take advantage of Windows 95’s capabilities.

Compaq Computer is the world’s top-selling personal computer company, followed by Apple Computer, nec, Packard Bell and Hewlett-Packard.

In Canada last year, ibm was No. 1 in the home market.

Compaq has launched its ‘Get Back with Compaq’ back-to-school campaign, which focuses on its Compaq Presario PC and Compaq 400 Series notebooks.

A heavily weighted national television and radio campaign from Ammarati & Puris of Toronto is promoting the products.

Last week, in preparation for the buying wave expected in the second half of this year, Compaq announced nine new commercial desktop computers for business and small business.

They are based on 133 Megahertz Intel Pentium chips and the price reductions of up to 23% across its commercial desktop product families – Prolinea and Deskpro.

John Boyle, director of marketing for Compaq Canada, says the new Pentium products will come at the new lower price point and the reduction of current products positions the company to go after the 486 market, which is still strong.

IBM Canada is also focusing on the back-to-school market with its ‘Get Net Go’ campaign from POW!, the promotions subsidiary of J. Walter Thompson of Toronto, which includes in-store and newspaper advertising.

Don Myles, vice-president, general manager Personal System division for IBM Canada, says ‘Get Net Go is oriented to the home market because with kids either going to university or school where they have access to the Internet, parents at home may well want to communicate with them through the Internet.’

Consumers buying an IBM Ambra or Aptiva computer until the end of September get six months free (180 hours or 180 days, whichever comes first) on the Internet through the ibm global network.

Apple Canada has featured its Macintosh Performa product for its back-to-school effort from BBDO Canada.

It is a cross-promotion with another bbdo client, Bell Mobility.

Gayle Long, national markets manager for Apple Canada, says the Performa series is designed for first-time, and home office buyers who need a complete solution but for those who have more experience or need more power, new Power Macintosh products were launched earlier this month.

Long says print advertising for the new Power Macs will use the theme, ‘It’s not how powerful the computer is. It’s how powerful the computer makes you,’ and a major tv campaign will get under way in October.

Hewlett-Packard, a relative newcomer to the home pc side of the business, is also readying for Windows 95 with the announcement last week of its second generation of pcs for the home market.

The new models will be released with Windows 95 pre-installed and color-coded cables to make them easier to install. PS