Personal computers are hot

Now that the market is open to international competition, a pent-up demand has Brazilians buying computers in record-breaking numbers. The vigorous market place-the installed base of PCs was put at 2.8 million units in 1995-demands everything from a simple hard-disk upgrade to entire multimedia systems; from home printers to high-end printing systems; and from multibranch banking automation systems to wide-area networks. Also experiencing a boom are international vendors of software applications, tools, and operating systems. Demand for these products has surged as companies and an increasing number of home users prefer to have original software in their machines instead of the mostly pirated copies that have been available since the years of the market reserve system, when imports were restricted. Sales of software alone were projected at US $1 billion in 1995, about half going to Brazilian companies. To grow the country´s software business, the federal government is promoting its Softex 2000 program, which aims to help companies with software to export