The Department of Labor said last week that computer prices were down almost 15 percent from a year earlier.

But analysts said the merger should strengthen their ability to make money even as computer prices come down.

More important, he suggests, the benefits from falling computer prices have been exaggerated.

As computer prices have fallen, it has become easier for some people to own more than one.

As computer prices have declined, so has the cost of alcohol detectors.

But while the planning was under way, computer prices fell sharply, "so the talks are largely dead."

In time spent working at the average manufacturing wage, personal computer prices have fallen 85 percent since 1984.

The bottom line is that computer prices have never been lower, and they will certainly become cheaper in the months ahead, at least for basic systems.

So far this year, computer prices have been falling at an annual rate of more than 30 percent.

For the last 12 months, computer prices dropped 21.5 percent, the report showed.