Having refashioned pool halls to appeal to a broader base of customers, Los Angeles entrepreneur David Houston is now setting his sights on refashioning the dull, beige personal computer.
The restaurateur and owner of Q’s Billiards in Brentwood and Pasadena and Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood has launched GravityBoxPC, a little computer company that is aiming to introduce stylish and powerful luxury PCs.
“We want to be the Ferrari or Porsche of PCs,” said Houston, who is the company’s CEO. “The computers offer extreme styling and extreme performance for the enthusiast who wants to explore the outer reaches of the PC’s potential.”
Targeted at a small, affluent group of gadget-obsessed computer users, the GravityBoxPC computer combines cutting-edge technology with forward-thinking, 100 percent beige-free designs.
While still in the prototype phase of development, the sleek GravityBoxPCs are loaded, thanks to an alliance with Intel Corp. The earliest model, called Tsunami, is configured with a powerful Pentium III 1-gigahertz chip, 256 megabytes of RAM, a 40-gigabyte hard drive, a flat panel screen and plenty of room for expansion.
And while Houston is the only member of his company’s senior management team without a tech background, he insists that his business skills as a restaurant owner are transferable to the tech world.
“With GravityBoxPC, we’re taking a different angle to a mature, well-established industry, which is what we did with Q’s Billiards,” Houston said. “The goal with Q’s, as it is with GravityBoxPC, is to make something relevant to people that didn’t notice it before to give them a new choice.”
In the case of Q’s, Houston offered a pool hall that was unlike the popular conception of a pool hall a dark, dingy, beer-only and mostly male-populated establishment.
“We opened the pool hall up, made it brighter, added a full bar and restaurant and made it a place where women are comfortable,” Houston said.
Likewise, he believes there exists a significant unmet demand for snazzier PCs. It’s a niche market that the major computer makers, other than Apple Computer Inc. and Sony Corp., have mostly ignored.
Apple’s innovative iMac drove sales some 5 million iMacs have been sold to date, according to Apple and even lured PC devotees to the Macintosh. But despite its success and the success of Sony’s sleek Vaio notebooks, none of the major computer makers have pushed the style and performance envelope.
Dell Computer Corp. canned its high-end, designer PC, the curved desktop model with a blue case called WebPC. IBM Corp., Gateway Inc. and Compaq Corp. have just a few offerings in designer PCs, most of which imitate the translucent, colored-plastic look of the iMac.
The trend towards smaller and smoother looking computers is in full swing at all of the major computer makers, but it’s moving too conservatively, according to Houston.
Taking a safer route
“There’s been a reluctance at any of the large computer corporations to have a large public flop, to take a risky chance on something bold,” he said. “Apple had nothing to lose. We can be even more bold and innovative. We have to be in order to capture market attention.”
But one large computer maker defends the tried-and-true designs.
“It’s a high-risk venture because people view PCs as very utilitarian at this point,” said Patrick Griffin, marketing manager for Compaq’s Presario PC products.
“Shelf appeal” is important to Compaq, but the company also has to appeal to the masses. The boldest fashion statement from Compaq has been its snap-on plastic attachments, which come in a range of colors and essentially serve as a cloak over the front of the beige Presario PC tower.
“Fashion is fickle,” Griffin said. “You can invest all you want in a super design, and the next year it could be passe. You don’t want to alienate anyone with what might be a cool design.”
But, he conceded, “there’s always a segment of any market of people who are willing to spend more money on the way something looks.”
Houston’s “bold and innovative” designs also mean high cost. He estimates that the GravityBoxPC computers will start at around $3,000. But he’s betting the cost will not be prohibitive.
Price sensitivity diminishes
“Last year, the market for computers costing more than $2,000 grew from 2 percent to 10 percent,” he said. “There is a segment of PC owners that wants machines that are relevant and not obsolete in a year. That group understands value differently. They’re not looking for the cheapest thing they can get, like most of the market.”
GravityBoxPC has completed a first round of private equity financing and is in the process of seeking a second round. Houston expects to have PCs ready to ship at the end of this year. He forecasts revenues of $14 million in 2002, $50 million in 2003 and $60 million in 2004.
The GravityBoxPC management team and its only employees at the moment include COO Philip Chang, a former Packard Bell executive; CTO Kurt Graves, founder of Bullet Computers; and engineer Jesse Lin, a former director of engineering for AST Computers.
The team has partnered with Westlake Village-based Hauser Industrial Design Inc., which is designing the computers. Manufacturing will be done at the same subcontractors that do work for the major computer makers, Graves said..”
