Packard Bell
Encyclopedia
Packard Bell is a Dutch computer manufacturer and a subsidiary of Acer. The name was previously used by Packard Bell
, an American radio
manufacturer founded in 1926. In 1986, Israeli investors bought the name for a newly formed personal computer
manufacturer. Originally the company produced discount computers in the US
and Canada
. When it left the North American computer industry in 2000, it quickly became a leader in the European and African markets. NEC took it over in the late 1990s. The Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer acquired it in 2008.
In spite of the similarity of their names, there has never been any corporate connection between the original or later Packard Bell and Hewlett Packard, or Bell System
.
and a group of Israeli investors bought the Packard Bell name from Teledyne and resurrected it as a manufacturer of low-cost personal computer
s. Their computers were among the first IBM PC compatible
s sold in retail chains such as Sears
.
Packard Bell sometimes benefited from misplaced name recognition, with consumers (especially first-time computer buyers) and even some salespeople erroneously associating the company with others of similar name, such as Hewlett-Packard
, Pacific Bell
, and Bell Laboratories
. Packard Bell's old slogan, "America grew up listening to us. It still does", may have facilitated the confusion. The company also sold nearly identical systems under different names, making comparison difficult.
Aside from price and brand misnomers, Packard Bell's success in number of units sold may have come from two areas of innovation: 1) branding and industrial design, provided by the San Francisco offices of frog design
; and 2) its boot-up shell Packard Bell Navigator
, created by The Pixel Company in Seattle. They targeted a huge section of consumers who were inexperienced using computers. Frog design gave the look of quality and invented innovations such as color coding cable connectors, while Navigator provided the ability for users to launch installed programs by clicking on-screen buttons, and then later a house metaphor. During this phase returns dropped from 19% to 10% and sales grew exponentially. Navigator was also the basis for the much more feature-rich Microsoft Bob
. In late 1995 to early 1996 Microsoft
forced boot-up shells off of OEM computers by updating its Microsoft Windows distribution agreement (OPK 2) and Packard Bell, without a clear on-shelf differentiator, saw sales begin to tumble.
In 1995 Compaq
sued Packard Bell for not disclosing that Packard Bell computers incorporated previously owned parts. This practice was, in fact, widespread in the computer industry including Compaq itself. However, unlike its rival companies, Packard Bell was judged not to have advertised the practice sufficiently in its warranties (Compaq, for instance, disclosed it in the warranty statement). The company was the subject of several lawsuits and paid millions of dollars in settlements. In 2005 PC World Magazine
ranked the Packard Bell computers of 1986–1996 as the worst PCs manufactured of all time. In addition, one out of six Packard Bell PCs sold at retail was returned, a rate double the industry average.
In 1995, Packard Bell acquired Zenith Data Systems
from Groupe Bull
in a deal which saw Groupe Bull and NEC
taking a larger stake in Packard Bell to create a $4.5 billion company. The company now became integrated with NEC Computers
. Its 15% market share made it the largest PC manufacturer, in terms of units shipped, in the United States. However, Compaq overtook it in retail sales in mid-1996 and cemented its lead the next year with the release of a $999 PC in March 1997.
Packard Bell posted losses totaling more than $1 billion in 1997 and 1998. In the U.S., price pressure from Compaq and, later, eMachines
, along with continued poor showings in consumer satisfaction surveys made it difficult for the company to remain profitable and led to Alagem's departure in 1998. In 1999, NEC began withdrawing the Packard Bell name from the U.S. market, while keeping it in Europe, where the brand was untainted by allegations of sub-standard quality.
, a British retailer of high-end consumer goods. Packard Bell also entered other businesses: such as MP3
players. In 2004, the company changed its logo and began manufacturing media products for television
and wireless networking.
Packard Bell also sells accessories and has started operating in other continents. In September 2006, Packard Bell was bought by John Hui
(the former owner of eMachines
). Now known as Packard Bell Europe B.V., the company relocated to Nijmegen in the Netherlands
.
In August 2007 the Chinese-American PC manufacturer Lenovo
confirmed its interest in acquiring Packard Bell in a move to expand its products into Europe
by placing an offer for Packard Bell. In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a 75% controlling share in the parent company of Packard Bell due to ownership rights that it had acquired when it purchased Gateway the year before, enabling Acer to counter offer any third party bid on Packard Bell. Packard Bell is now in the same corporate family (and shares products with) Gateway
, a former competitor.
Currently, Packard Bell manufactures the wide range of EasyNote laptop computer models.
took over the contract, Packard Bell sponsored English football club Leeds United.
From 2009 to 2010, the name Packard Bell has been seen on the FIAT
Yamaha
MotoGP racebike of World Champion Valentino Rossi
of Italy
. Packard Bell also dropped their sponsorship from the Professional Electronic Sports Team, 4Kings, but picked up team Enron
from North America.
Packard Bell (1926)
Packard Bell was an American radio manufacturer founded in 1926, that later became a defense contractor and manufacturer of other consumer electronics, such as television sets. Teledyne acquired the business in 1978...
, an American radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
manufacturer founded in 1926. In 1986, Israeli investors bought the name for a newly formed personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
manufacturer. Originally the company produced discount computers in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. When it left the North American computer industry in 2000, it quickly became a leader in the European and African markets. NEC took it over in the late 1990s. The Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer acquired it in 2008.
In spite of the similarity of their names, there has never been any corporate connection between the original or later Packard Bell and Hewlett Packard, or Bell System
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
.
Packard Bell
In 1986, Beny AlagemBeny Alagem
Beny Alagem is an Israeli American entrepreneur, developer, and the founder of Packard Bell Electronics, a leading American computer manufacturer during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
and a group of Israeli investors bought the Packard Bell name from Teledyne and resurrected it as a manufacturer of low-cost personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s. Their computers were among the first IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
s sold in retail chains such as Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
.
Packard Bell sometimes benefited from misplaced name recognition, with consumers (especially first-time computer buyers) and even some salespeople erroneously associating the company with others of similar name, such as Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Pacific Bell
Pacific Telesis
Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, sometimes also referred to as "RBOCs" or "Baby Bells", created in 1983 in preparation of the breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, Pacific Telesis International and several other...
, and Bell Laboratories
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
. Packard Bell's old slogan, "America grew up listening to us. It still does", may have facilitated the confusion. The company also sold nearly identical systems under different names, making comparison difficult.
Aside from price and brand misnomers, Packard Bell's success in number of units sold may have come from two areas of innovation: 1) branding and industrial design, provided by the San Francisco offices of frog design
Frog design inc.
Frog is a global innovation firm founded in 1969 by industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger and partners Andreas Haug and Georg Spreng in Mutlangen, Germany as "Esslinger Design". Soon after it moved to Altensteig, Germany, and then to Palo Alto, California, and ultimately to its current...
; and 2) its boot-up shell Packard Bell Navigator
Packard Bell Navigator
Packard Bell Navigator was an alternative shell for the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems that shipped with Packard Bell computers. The shell was designed to be simpler to use for computer novices by representing applications as objects in a virtual home, similar to Microsoft Bob and At...
, created by The Pixel Company in Seattle. They targeted a huge section of consumers who were inexperienced using computers. Frog design gave the look of quality and invented innovations such as color coding cable connectors, while Navigator provided the ability for users to launch installed programs by clicking on-screen buttons, and then later a house metaphor. During this phase returns dropped from 19% to 10% and sales grew exponentially. Navigator was also the basis for the much more feature-rich Microsoft Bob
Microsoft Bob
Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical interface to desktop computing operations. It was one of Microsoft's more visible product failures...
. In late 1995 to early 1996 Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
forced boot-up shells off of OEM computers by updating its Microsoft Windows distribution agreement (OPK 2) and Packard Bell, without a clear on-shelf differentiator, saw sales begin to tumble.
In 1995 Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
sued Packard Bell for not disclosing that Packard Bell computers incorporated previously owned parts. This practice was, in fact, widespread in the computer industry including Compaq itself. However, unlike its rival companies, Packard Bell was judged not to have advertised the practice sufficiently in its warranties (Compaq, for instance, disclosed it in the warranty statement). The company was the subject of several lawsuits and paid millions of dollars in settlements. In 2005 PC World Magazine
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
ranked the Packard Bell computers of 1986–1996 as the worst PCs manufactured of all time. In addition, one out of six Packard Bell PCs sold at retail was returned, a rate double the industry average.
In 1995, Packard Bell acquired Zenith Data Systems
Zenith Data Systems
Zenith Data Systems was a division of Zenith founded in 1979 after Zenith acquired Heathkit, which had, in 1977, entered the personal computer market. Headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Zenith sold personal computers under both the Heath/Zenith and Zenith Data Systems names...
from Groupe Bull
Groupe Bull
-External links:* * — Friends, co-workers and former employees of Bull and Honeywell* *...
in a deal which saw Groupe Bull and NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
taking a larger stake in Packard Bell to create a $4.5 billion company. The company now became integrated with NEC Computers
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
. Its 15% market share made it the largest PC manufacturer, in terms of units shipped, in the United States. However, Compaq overtook it in retail sales in mid-1996 and cemented its lead the next year with the release of a $999 PC in March 1997.
Packard Bell posted losses totaling more than $1 billion in 1997 and 1998. In the U.S., price pressure from Compaq and, later, eMachines
EMachines
eMachines is a brand of entry level PCs, based in Irvine, California. eMachines employed about 135 employees and sold between 1 to 2 million computers each year before its purchase on January 30, 2004, by rival Gateway Computers...
, along with continued poor showings in consumer satisfaction surveys made it difficult for the company to remain profitable and led to Alagem's departure in 1998. In 1999, NEC began withdrawing the Packard Bell name from the U.S. market, while keeping it in Europe, where the brand was untainted by allegations of sub-standard quality.
Packard Bell Europe
In 2000, NEC withdrew Packard Bell from the U.S. market, selling their Utah based call centers, all its US inventory and all US product liability to Alorica Inc who was responsible for providing support to all remaining US customers. Packard Bell continued to be popular overseas as Packard Bell B.V. (PBBV). Indeed, Packard Bell B.V. still enjoys a relatively good reputation; its products, for example, are stocked by John LewisJohn Lewis (department store)
-Recent developments:In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of...
, a British retailer of high-end consumer goods. Packard Bell also entered other businesses: such as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
players. In 2004, the company changed its logo and began manufacturing media products for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and wireless networking.
Packard Bell also sells accessories and has started operating in other continents. In September 2006, Packard Bell was bought by John Hui
Lap Shun Hui
Lap Shun Hui, also known as John Hui, is a Chinese American tech entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of PC manufacturing companies Everex and eMachines. He is also the current owner of LCD manufacturer InFocus and the former owner of PC manufacturer Packard Bell.-Biography:Hui was born in South...
(the former owner of eMachines
EMachines
eMachines is a brand of entry level PCs, based in Irvine, California. eMachines employed about 135 employees and sold between 1 to 2 million computers each year before its purchase on January 30, 2004, by rival Gateway Computers...
). Now known as Packard Bell Europe B.V., the company relocated to Nijmegen in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
In August 2007 the Chinese-American PC manufacturer Lenovo
Lenovo Group
Lenovo Group Limited is a Chinese multinational personal technology company that develops, manufactures and markets desktop and notebook computers, workstations, servers, storage drives, IT management software, and other related products and services. Lenovo was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988...
confirmed its interest in acquiring Packard Bell in a move to expand its products into Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
by placing an offer for Packard Bell. In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a 75% controlling share in the parent company of Packard Bell due to ownership rights that it had acquired when it purchased Gateway the year before, enabling Acer to counter offer any third party bid on Packard Bell. Packard Bell is now in the same corporate family (and shares products with) Gateway
Gateway, Inc.
Gateway Computer Corporation, is a computer hardware company headquartered in Irvine, California, USA which develops, manufactures, supports, and markets a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories...
, a former competitor.
Currently, Packard Bell manufactures the wide range of EasyNote laptop computer models.
Sponsorship
From 1996 until 2000, when StrongbowStrongbow Cider
Strongbow is a brand of dry cider manufactured in England by H.P. Bulmer. Popular since it was launched in 1962, it is the best selling cider in the world, and its sales account for more than 20% of all the cider sold in the UK...
took over the contract, Packard Bell sponsored English football club Leeds United.
From 2009 to 2010, the name Packard Bell has been seen on the FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
MotoGP racebike of World Champion Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi, , is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class.Following his father, Graziano Rossi,...
of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Packard Bell also dropped their sponsorship from the Professional Electronic Sports Team, 4Kings, but picked up team Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
from North America.