Gateway 2000’s P5-200XL: CD-R Gets Branded

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The new $3899 PS-200XL from direct-marketing powerhouse Gateway 2000 of North Sioux City, South Dakota is a state-of-the-art 200MHz Pentium system and the first PC from a major vendor to incorporate a CD recorder.

Gateway 2000’s P5-200XL: CD-R Gets Branded

Hugh Bennett
CD-ROM Professional, September 1996

Just as Noel Coward introduced mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the noonday sun, Gateway 2000 uses prairie dogs and Holstein cows to introduce a personal computer with a built-in CD recorder. Mad you say? Not at all. Just ahead of the pack.

The new $3899 PS-200XL from direct-marketing powerhouse Gateway 2000 of North Sioux City, South Dakota is a state-of-the-art 200MHz Pentium system and the first PC from a major vendor to incorporate a CD recorder (Panasonic’s 5.25″ 2x write/4x read half-height tray loading mechanism). The complete package includes a SCSI controller, a specially modified version of CD Creator 2.0, three blank discs, an 8X CD-ROM drive, a 17″ monitor, a 28.8Kbps modem, sound card, and speakers.

For massive market CD-R growth to occur, most observers have long been in agreement that CD-R must duplicate the history of CD-ROM drives which took off only after they became standard equipment installed by PC manufacturers at the factory. Gateway becomes the first vendor to seize the opportunity.

“The CD recorder will be an indispensable component on all computers,” says Rob Cheng, Gateway’s vice president of marketing. Industry analyst John Freeman, president of Strategic Marketing Decisions, says that “PC vendors are looking for new market opportunities, and delays in DVD have increased the window of opportunity for CD-R.” Gateway’s decision to integrate a CD recorder into its PC lineup puts them ahead of many PC companies who will integrate recorders by the fourth quarter of this year.

While there is enthusiasm about Gateway’s move, few believe that this is the end of the story. Observers say recorders must still move from being $599 options on high-end systems to $300 universally installed devices with improved ease of use (through packet writing) and an expanding range of application uses driven by readily available and cheap blank discs. Given current prices and projected media shortages, much has to change before CD-R can ride free on the range.

(Gateway 2000, Inc., 610 Gateway Drive, P.O. Box 2000, North Sioux City, SD 57048; 800/846-2000; Fax 605/232-2023; http://www.gw2k.com)

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