Shanghai, July 19: The number of Chinese families buying personal computers for home use would swell over the next several years until the computer rivals other common household appliances, an Intel Corp executive said on Saturday.

"It's (the computer) becoming one of the home appliances -- along with the television, refrigerator and others -- for the modern Chinese family," said James Jarrett, president of Intel China.

United States-based Intel Corp is the world's largest maker of computer chips.Chinese consumers were likely to buy three million computers in 1997 with 20 per cent of the total for use in the home, he said."We would expect over time that the percentage of the market that is represented by home personal computers would grow," Jarrett said in an interview.

"It's not impossible that it could be in the 40 to 50 per cent range over time, comparable to the United States," he said, but gave no specific time-frame. China has a growing middle class with income levels to match and the relatively high cost of computers had not stopped the computer market here from developing, Jarrett said.

Analysts have said the average maximum price for a new domestically-made computer for individual use was around 10,000 yuan ($1,200), but foreign brands were usually more costly. Jarret said the savings rate in China was high and people were willing to make targeted purchases of items they thought had good value."The other thing that Chinese consumers are doing is really buying at the state-of-the-art," he said. "The conventional wisdom in this marketplace used to be that you could sell old computers here -- that doesn't work anymore. "Intel executives were in Shanghai on Saturday to launch a campaign to educate families and children about computers through a street fair and other activities in China and Asia.

The company's worldwide revenue in the second quarter of 1997 was $6.0 billion, up 29 per cent from the same period last year, Intel said.

The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, accounted for 19 per cent of Intel's total revenue in the second quarter, it said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.