Taking Advantage of a Short-term
Upturn in PC Sales

VARs, resellers, and integrators--don't miss this window of opportunity! Gartner forecasts short-term growth in the worldwide PC market over the next year as businesses replace a large number of obsolete systems. After that, they expect sales to drop significantly. Many of these new systems will lack serial port expansion options found in the systems they replace. Quatech connectivity products are the answer to helping your customers maximize investments in new PC-based systems.

The Gartner report forecasts a 13.6% increase in PC sales in 2004 for a total of approximately 186.4 units shipped. Of those they predict about 100 million of them are replacement sales. In 2005 they predict an addition 120 million replacement PC sales. According to Gartner--that is more systems than were replaced in the Y2K motivated upgrade cycle.

Gartner cites age and lack of support for older Windows Operating Systems as the impetus behind the mass replacement sales. They predict that Windows 95, 98 and NT machines will be the first to go, and that Windows 2000 machines will begin to be replaced in significant numbers in 2005. However, they see nothing on the hardware or software front that will drive sales of new or replacement units in the 2006-2008 timeframe--and predict some very lean times for the PC industry.

This window of opportunity in 2004-2005 exists not only for PC manufacturers, but for the many VARs, integrators, and resellers serving the same market and providing serial and parallel connectivity solutions. Many of these new PCs being purchased will come without the ports required to integrate peripheral devices such as card readers, printers, bar code readers, GPS equipment, CNC machines, and a wide variety of test and measurement equipment.

In fact, these devices have been such integral parts of systems, that your customers might not even realize that the new PC they just ordered lacks the requisite ports. This is your chance to provide exceptional value-added service to your customer by asking the right questions to ensure a smooth system upgrade. It is also your chance to make an extra sale by including Quatech serial and/or parallel connectivity in every system you sell.

Quatech's extensive product line with its all encompassing driver set, is ideally suited for any system upgrade. Our Universal PCI serial boards are not only compatible with 3.3V and 5V systems, they are also compatible with older 32-bit systems and newer 64-bit systems. Their Low Profile footprint makes them ideal for even the smallest Thin Client systems as well. And, operating support for Windows and Linux, makes them suited for any system.

For closed-box systems Quatech USB serial adapters and Ethernet Serial Device Servers (SDS) enable multiple serial ports to be provided via a single USB or Ethernet port. SDS units even enable multiple PCs to share a single serial device just as if it were attached to the host computer. Wireless serial device servers provide the same functionality--without even requiring Ethernet cables to be run.

For portable systems, Quatech offers the industry's most extensive line of serial and parallel PCMCIA and CompactFlash cards. These cards add up to 4 ports, and use minimal system resources to do it. With support for Windows 9x-XP, Windows CE/Pocket PC, and Linux they are the perfect choice for any laptop, tablet, handheld, or PDA.

So, strike while the iron is hot--and help your customers maximize their technology budgets by purchasing new equipment where performance enhancements can be realized, and purchasing quality Quatech connectivity products to leverage their investments in the serial and parallel devices that continue to function optimally.