Quotes of the Week, December 16-20

"It's a simple, logical commercial decision. It seems that NT on RISC-based systems is not proving to be a popular choice." - IBM's Ian Roscow on shutting down its PowerPC Windows NT business through lack of demand.

"I just don't feel there is a way to succeed with a non-Intel NT platform. This market is becoming very low margin. It's a tricky situation ... I would say good luck [Digital]." - Bull's Didier Breton, on following IBM's withdrawal.

"The Internet television in its current form does not have significant market potential in Dataquest 's view. The interface and usability of the device leaves a lot of room for improvement." - Dataquest's Van Baker on the shortcomings of WebTV.

"It's just gossip. [Channel] training is already going on... MMX will launch at 166MHz and 200MHz and will initially be premium-priced but the ramp will be quick. The 133MHz Pentium is the chip for Mr. And Mrs. Average at the moment." - Intel spokeswoman crushing rumours about MMX.

"We think MMX will take the high-end of the Pentium market very quickly ... we expect MMX to quickly become entry-level. Even now, the market for below-120MHz Pentiums is dying or dead."- Carrera's Jez Deacon on MMX.

"Everyone's scared of MMX. Christmas is consumer and MMX is a big thing for consumers. Nobody buys England football shirts for their kids when they're going to change them in January." - AMD's Richard Baker.

"Producing the silicon isn't the difficult bit. If the chip isn't compatible with existing [PC systems], it has to be out for a long time to be a competitor and get acceptance from the customer base." - AMD's Richard Baker cynical about the chip consortium which plans a Pentium rival by 1998.

"Modems are being bought by the truckload. We've grown exponentially, and with recent US pricing, demand has just outstripped supply." - AOL spokeswoman defending its second UK outage.