"A lot of what consumers hear about the Pentium 4 is ..oh, unless you're a gamer or a multimedia professional, you don't need a Pentium 4 system. And what we're trying to explain to consumers is that the Pentium 4 processor has power with purpose to go after things that millions of consumers care about today. Such as digital music, such as home digital movie making and also enhanced experiences of multimedia coming over the Internet."
Intel's consumer education manager Ralph Bond. PCs equipped with the Pentium 4 can cost a thousand dollars or more than Pentium 3s. The question consumers will have to decide is... are they worth the difference?
"I think a smart buyer's tip regardless of what level of processor or system you're looking at ... .whether you're looking at one of our Celerons or one of our high performance Pentium 3s or if you're looking at our ultimate solution right now, which is the Pentium 4, the strategy you should apply is first, figure out how much you can afford to spend on a system and then obviously, buy the most powerful solution you can cause you want to buy as much time to own that system and meet your needs as possible."
Keep in mind, buying a computer isn't like buying a new stereo or TV for example. If you buy a low-end system today... and you could find yourself frustrated by what it can't do... just a year or two down the road. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg Radio.