Today, Pentium IIIs are more than adequate for all but the most demanding usage. With more than half of all U.S. households owning PCs, there aren't a whole lot of newbies left to sell PCs to. Home computing does not demand more raw power. Typically, consumer PCs are used for Web surfing, email, word processing and a game or two. Perhaps the occasional Excel spreadsheet, or Quicken , is used to manage the family budget.
Corporate owners are even less likely to upgrade.
Intel and Microsoft no longer create the demand for new PCs the way they once did. Napster grew to more than 40 million registered users faster than any other program in history. It's exactly what the industry has been lusting for. At least, that's how it looked 12 months ago. That may even happen one day yet.