COMPAQ HAS NEW MACHINES, LOWERS PRICES
By Adnews Staff
With the announcement of nine new computers hitting the North American market in mid-September, Compaq Computer Corp. reduced prices on existing machines last week by up to 23%. The new models contain the fastest microprocessor currently on the market, the 133 megahertz Pentium chip released by Intel Corp. earlier this summer. The computers will be in Compaq's ProLinea, Deskpro and Deskpro XL lines. Print advertising for the new computers and price reductions that began last week was created by Ammirati & Puris of New York, with the Toronto office localizing the ads for Canada. Separately, Compaq has beefed up its customer support operation to cut down the time it takes a user with a problem to reach a telephone support engineer. This includes a special group on call just to handle problems with Microsoft Windows '95. On Aug. 24, Compaq will have a new 1-800 support hot line specifically for Windows-related calls, staffed around the clock, seven days a week. The company is also beefing up its on-line support, encouraging customers to use America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, Compaq's web site and BBS Download Service to solve technical problems. Compaq will post information including installation tips, a list of commonly asked questions and answers and current Compaq software drivers on all the Compaq on-line forums. A day after Compaq announced its price cuts International Business Machines Corporation said it was dropping prices on its personal computers.