Computer Retail Week Online and The Verity Group Find That Only Nine Percent of Consumers Are Aware of Intel's New MMX Technology

Intel's MMX technology may have taken hold in retail stores, but for the most part consumers are unaware of the technology. Only 9 percent of 300 consumers surveyed by the California- based Verity Group indicated that they had heard of the technology. The telephone survey of a nationally representative sample was conducted last week by The Verity Group on behalf of Computer Retail Week and results are posted on Computer Retail Week Online (CRWi at http://www/crw.com).

Awareness of MMX technology was higher (15.7 percent) for male respondents and lower (4.6 percent) for women. Awareness of MMX technology was evenly balanced among the different age groups in the study.

Of those respondents who had heard of MMX technology, 32 percent said that they would be willing to buy a new personal computer that did not have MMX. But 39 percent said that they would not buy a personal computer that did not come with MMX technology. Those respondents in the survey that had heard of MMX technology indicated that they were willing to pay $220 more, on average, for an MMX-equipped system with all other aspects being equal. Male respondents indicated a willingness to spend an average of $255 more, while women were only willing to spend an additional $116 for MMX-equipped systems.

Respondents between the ages of 26 years and 35 years who were aware of MMX technology were willing to pay $150 more on average for systems with the technology, compared to respondents who were 56 years of age or older who were only willing to pay $50 more for the technology.

Half of the respondents that were aware of MMX technology and were between 36 years and 55 years old said that they would be willing to buy PCs that did not have MMX technology. Only about a third as many of the respondents who were either younger or older than that group indicated that they would be willing to buy a PC without MMX technology. Forty percent of the men responding to the survey that were aware of MMX technology said they would be willing to buy a computer without MMX, but only 12.5 percent of the women said that they would buy a PC without MMX.

Computer Retail Week is the leading newspaper for technology retailers. It provides critical information about new alliances, technologies and products for a wide audience of computer hardware and software retailers, mass merchants, software specialty stores and other Channel members. For the past six years, Computer Retail Week has delivered breaking news weekly throughout the year. Breaking news stories can be viewed by visiting Computer Retail Week's home page -- CRWi -- at http://www.crw.com/.

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SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.

CONTACT: Leslie Dunbar of CMP Media, 516-562-7040, or ldunbar@cmp.com