No Touchdowns for Tech Bellwethers
,----[ Quote ]
| IBM and Intel reported mixed first-quarter results, underscoring
| worries about weak U.S. demand and tough competition. But there was
| good news, too
|
| [...]
|
| And while prices on components have been under pressure, companies have
| been slow to move unsold inventory left over from the fourth quarter.
| What's more, a much hoped-for upgrade of PCs spurred by the release
| of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system has turned in
| underwhelming results so far.
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070417_259787.htm?campaign_id=yhoo
http://tinyurl.com/35k99u
Related:
Uh-Oh, Vista! PC Sales Levels Are Normal
,----[ Quote ]
| "Vista hasn't been a catalyst for PC sales," he said. "Looking at the
| weekly data, there really isn't anything happening with sales that
| has anything to do with Vista."
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/oh_oh_vista_pc_sales_levels_are_normal.html
,----[ Quote ]
| "This is a relic of old-line consumer products companies like Philip
| Morris, or fraudsters like Miniscribe who literally shipped bricks in
| lieu of disk drives to hit sales targets.
|
| [...]
|
| Channel stuffing is the business practice where a company or a sales
| force within a company inflates its sales figures by forcing more
| products through a distribution channel than the channel is capable
| of selling to the world at large.
|
| [...]
|
| We have a game we play around the office here with Microsoft press
| releases. The game is, "Find the words that make the headline true."
| It's not always easy.
|
| [...]
|
| Sony, like Microsoft, announces units shipped, not actually sold.
| This allows both companies to advertise sales numbers based on how
| many units they can force retailers to accept, not on how many units
| customers actually buy; both have considerable market power to push
| excess unsold inventory into the channel."
`----
http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2007/04/microsoft_phili.html
Samsung posts weak Q1 on chips, outlook tough
,----[ Quote ]
| Stronger-than-expected demand for DRAM chips last year
| prompted manufacturers to switch more capacity to DRAM from
| NAND flash, leading to oversupply, while demand linked to
| Microsoft's new Vista operating system has been sluggish.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070413/samsung_result.html?.v=1
,----[ Quote ]
| "This is a relic of old-line consumer products companies like Philip
| Morris, or fraudsters like Miniscribe who literally shipped bricks in
| lieu of disk drives to hit sales targets.
|
| [...]
|
| Channel stuffing is the business practice where a company or a sales
| force within a company inflates its sales figures by forcing more
| products through a distribution channel than the channel is capable
| of selling to the world at large.
|
| [...]
|
| We have a game we play around the office here with Microsoft press
| releases. The game is, "Find the words that make the headline true."
| It's not always easy.
|
| [...]
|
| Sony, like Microsoft, announces units shipped, not actually sold.
| This allows both companies to advertise sales numbers based on how
| many units they can force retailers to accept, not on how many units
| customers actually buy; both have considerable market power to push
| excess unsold inventory into the channel."
`----
http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2007/04/microsoft_phili.html
Ballmer delivers sobering message at Microsoft event
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer tempered the
| expectations of analysts at an event Thursday, telling them
| their predictions for sales of the company's new operating
| system are too high, while those for its operating expenses
| may be too low.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ballmer-delivers-sobering-message-microsoft/story.aspx?guid=%7BCFADFB4D%2D7D86%2D4A0A%2DA233%2D1D18F48F82F7%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo
http://tinyurl.com/2juebs
Vista Seen Having Little Impact on PC Hardware Sales
,----[ Quote ]
| Top PC makers, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, may now
| have to resort to sales of lower-margin computers in emerging
| markets such as China, Eastern Europe and Latin America for
| their growth this year.
`----
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109181,00.asp
PC Makers to Microsoft: "Vista Is Not a Seller. You Suck"
,----[ Quote ]
| Take Acer's president, Gianfranco Lanci, who has just said that "PC
| makers are really not counting on Vista to drive high demands for
| the industry." Or Samsung Electronics, who now says that DRAM demand
| has not matched anyone's predictions based on Vista's now failed
| projections, something that is being echoed by the industry as a whole.
`----
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/pc-makers-to-microsoft-vista-is-not-a-seller-you-suck-248336.php
Dear Bill Gates - where are the 20m Vista users?
,----[ Quote ]
| We mailed 1,000 contacts in November discussing the likely impact of
| Vista and O'07 on business and future communications. The replies at
| the time were somewhat muted. Some people even wrote back asking what
| Vista was and we had to point them in the right direction.
`----
http://goukblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/dear-bill-gates-where-are-20m-vista.html
|
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