New Corel unit targets NCs

Electronic News, June 30, 1997 by Sarah Cohen

Corel has always had its hand in the hardware side of the industry, said a Corel spokesman, and in fact, started as a systems integrator 11 years ago. It developed the LS-2000 SCSI card with Adaptec in the late '80s and more recently created a videoconferencing product, called CorelVideo. Corel's interest in the development of NCs began when "Corel's CEO, Michael Cowpland, took a look at Java 16 months ago to create a graphics/Internet/business application written in the Java language. He realized that the only way he could reliably test the software was to build an NC team."

The Corel Video Network Computer is the first product expected to roll out of the new subsidiary, to be demonstrated this coming September and to retail at about $750. The subsidiary is still in the process of deciding upon a CPU for the product, said the spokesman. "We were considering the Motorola 831 and Intel chips--although Intel's pricing is not as aggressive as other companies. The Digital StrongARM SA-10 is our favorite, at 166- and 233-megahertz."

"Corel decided to create the subsidiary to better focus on applications like WordPerfect and CorelDraw, and this allows us to get our own identity and focus on what we're doing," stated Roger Bryanton, director of engineering for the new Corel Computer. The subsidiary currently has 75 employees and its own president, Eid Eid, former VP of technology at Corel. Corel has recently sold a line of games to Hoffman and Associates, also in an effort to concentrate on software applications, said Mr. Bryanton.

Corel Computer is headquartered in the Ottawa, Canada off-site of the Corel headquarters. Reports suggest the unit may take on a direct sales form of marketing, popular these days due to higher profit margins than indirect sales.