Take this PC and . . .
Computers remain user unfriendly.
A funny thing has happened on the way to techno utopia. Despite the increasing importance society places on personal computer ownership, the endless hype about the joy of surfing the Internet, and a 124 percent jump in the amount of money spent on PC advertising over the past two years, the rate at which people are buying their first computer has suddenly slowed down. In 1994, the number of PCs sold to home users jumped 42 percent over the previous year. The next year, unit sales grew only 18 percent, and in 1996, a paltry 8 percent. Computer makers are hardly hurting.