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You can't sell a complete PC for $999 and expect to get $300 of that for the HD. Not gonna happen. More and more pressure will befall everything inside the box. And the box itself. Profit margins are headed even lower. Just my opinion, but... Look at IBM. Now they're in on it- a complete system for $999 with more or better stuff than CPQ offers. So CPQ will drop more, then DELL, then GTW, CPU, and every ther BTO company. The small, start up BTO companies will fall by the wayside. Only a few DD makers will stay afloat. Circut board makers, chip makers, forget about it. Nobody needs a 300Mhz chip for anything. Hell, you don't need MMX. IMO.
Home PC's should have cost $500, complete, 2 years ago. In the not to distant future they will. IMHO. Software's next. Gates just sold a major position in MSFT. Coincidence? This is all good for the consumer, of course. But IMO the hay ride is over for box-related investors. More inventory than ever will be in continuous movement with less overall profit. At these prices, everybody will buy a PC or a second PC or a third. But the profit margins have been trashed.
Greg |
