Dave, I'll add my $0.02 to yours, and while we can't even get a cup
of coffee with that, we may be able to buy a 166 Mhz, 16 Meg, 2Gb
computer with it next week (monitor extra).
Given 20/20 hindsight, I feel pretty dumb. If Intel is going to have
a bad quarter, it kinda follows that some of their major customers
are in deep doo doo as well. I'm not sure I believe Dell's protests to
the contrary, since in a non value add environment price is everything. I think I've heard the same refrain from QNTM/SEG/WDC and again from SYBS/IFMX.
Let's just hope the bad news stays confined to the PC sector, because then you are correct. But, should, say, CSCO give
warning, I'd be plenty concerned (we don't have to worry about
MSFT, since, IMO, they can cease operations for a quarter and
deliver profits from their deferred revenue slush fund).
Who knows, maybe this is the beginning of the Y2k impact, in which
companies are redeploying their IT budgets to the bug fix at the expense of hardware purchases. If so, it just makes the holding period longer, but the rewards no less sweet.
Carl |
