AST Ready to Take On Tandy, IBM Home PCs

Making its first foray into the home computer market, Irvine-based AST Research Inc. has introduced a low-priced personal computer to compete against such well-known brands as Tandy Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.

AST, which until now has designed and manufactured personal computers primarily for the business market, said its Bravo/286 will have a starting price tag of $1,095. Current AST models range in price from $1,500 to more than $11,000.

“This is our attempt to show we can play hard ball and offer exciting technology . . . at a price that our reseller community has been asking us to do for a long time,” Larry Fortmuller, AST’s director of systems marketing, said Wednesday.

“We expect this to be a hit seller,” he added.

And AST could use a hit.

Last month, the Irvine firm reported an $8.9-million loss for the quarter ended Dec. 30. At the same time, AST laid off 70 Orange County workers and announced plans to slash 50 other jobs in the United States and overseas.

In targeting the home market, AST is going after an area of business that for years failed to live up to the expectations of personal computer makers. In recent years, however, the home market has perked up due to the increasing use of computers by people who work part- or full-time at home.

But AST’s plans for the Bravo are not limited to the home. The company expects to sell the Bravo to business customers for use in applications, such as word processing, that do not require more expensive, high-powered machines, Fortmuller said. IBM has also gone after that piece of the market with the models 25 and 30 of its Personal System/2 line.

“The gap I see (Bravo) filling is the need for a higher-powered machine serving the low end of the business market,” said Bob Norton, general manager of a computer reseller chain that carries AST products. “That has generally not been available in the industry, although IBM did a neat job with the models 25 and 30.”

AST’s models are priced hundreds of dollars cheaper than the IBM models, he added.

Fortmuller said AST was encouraged to develop a low-cost machine aimed at the home and business market by the ComputerLand retail chain and some of its other large customers.

ComputerLand, the world’s largest computer chain, is an especially important customer for AST. The Irvine firm received a major boost in June, 1988, when ComputerLand agreed to become an official dealer of AST products.

Richard A. Schaffer, a New York computer analyst, said AST is moving into an “awfully crowded” field and questioned whether the market really needs such a machine.

But Schaffer added: “I’ve bet against Safi (Qureshey, AST’s president) in the past and ended up losing.”

AST said it expects the Bravo to compete not only against the likes of IBM and Tandy but also against low-cost IBM “clones” from Asian-based manufacturers.

To help drive down production costs of the Bravo, AST is manufacturing the machine at its Taiwan plant.

AST said the Bravo is powered by Intel Corp.’s 80286 microprocessor. The machine comes in three models ranging in price from $1,095 to $2,095. AST said it has already begun shipping the product, which should begin appearing on store shelves soon.