Just over 52 million US households had a PC as of January 1999, an increase of 6.4 million households from January 1998. Although penetration is higher in the higher income categories, there are much fewer of those households, so the peak in the number of PC households occurs in the $60,000 to $99,999 annual income ranges. That is also where the largest increase in the number of households with PCs came in calendar year 1998.

Households without PCs continue to be predominately lower income households. More than half (54%) of households without a PC have an annual household income below $30,000 and three-quarters (77%) have income less than $50,000. We did see a good jump in penetration in the under $30k households in 1998. This is good news, in that it shows that we are continuing to broaden the profile of PC users in the US. We are continuing to attract buyers in the lower income categories - something we must do if we are to expand home penetration beyond the 65% to 70% level.

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