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Prognosis for PC sales: Grim
It’s getting ugly out there for personal computer makers.
The current recession has sparked “rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior” that have made this holiday season “the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen,” Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said today. The company dropped its forecast for the current quarter, just days after its main rival, Circuit City, declared bankruptcy.
Best Buy’s news prompted another round of pessimistic research notes from analysts today, many saying the announcement confirmed their expectations of a tough holiday season for computer makers.
Even before Circuit City’s news, UBS analyst Ben Reitzes said the smaller, cheaper netbooks popular this year would put a damper on average PC sales prices through the holiday season. Yesterday, he dropped his revenue estimate on Dell and H-P for the second time in a month.
It doesn’t look like it’ll get any better next year. Research firm IDC, which tracks technology sales, lowered its forecast today for worldwide technology spending growth in 2009 — dropping it to 2.6 percent from 5.9 percent. For the U.S., IDC scaled back its estimate to 0.9 percent from 4.2 percent.
Any way you slice it, the recession is making life difficult for computer and information-technology companies. Then again, it’s not exactly roses for the rest of us, either.
Comments
By HelYa
November 12, 2008 2:46 PM | Link to this
Let’s not use the recession to mask the fact that the vast majority of pc’s SUCK and are WAY WAY WAY overpriced. Sure, you could sell a pc for a grand and higher back when EVERYONE was buying their first pc, but now? The price doesn’t reflect demand and until it does the pc market is going to stay in the tank. How about a very usable pc for $200-$300? Maybe then they would sell, but as long as the pc industry is trying to sell CRAP for $700 and something fairly decent at around $1000 to $1200 they can kiss their sales goodbye!
By wilber
November 12, 2008 6:16 PM | Link to this
Before long the basic PC will be something you get for free with 2 year contract for internet service… same model as the cell phone business.
By dennisl59
November 16, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
There is a new standard generation of Intel Processors(45nm) and motherboards in the retail pipeline along with the next USB3.0 interface. And until Blu-Ray players are a standard option, with the Vista 64 bit operation system, I will not upgrade(buy new) for at least another year.Thank You.