The Players

Sculley says the new market Is 'going to happen whether Apple does It or nor-but 'if Apple doesn't do it, we only have ourselves to blame:

HEWLETT-PACKARD

While other companies are talking big about the digital future, Hewlett-Packard CEO John Young Is already rushing products to the fledgling market Last. April the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company unveiled the HP 95LX, a palm-size computer that is compatible with those made by IBM and retails for about $400. Consumers have snapped up more than 100,000 of the little wonders-and a stunning 1,1 00 companies are scrambling to wits software for it HP has also agreed to manufacture the $700 hardware unit for TV Answer, a Reston, Va, company that got approval earlier this year from the Federal Communications Commission to begin providing such Interactive TV services as home banking, shopping and bill paying. It's a big strategic step for HP, a company that had largely stuck to technical computers and laser printer

Hewlett-Packard stated Its vision In a 1989 video that seems uncannily similar to Apple's computer-of-the-future Knowledge Navigator tape. HP's fictional machines even show a talking software secretary like Apple's 'Phil' at the upper left corner of the screen. "We do get ribbed about that," says HP vice president Robert Frankenberg, "often from Apple people." He points out that no one in the company had seen Apple's efforts when HP commissioned its tape. "We think that there's a lot of room In this market," Frankenberg says, land we only want major parts of it."