Gene,
The observation that unit growth is stronger than revenue growth is a given. This, however, doesn't diminish the fact that Gateway has shown strong revenue growth (yeah a meager 17%) in an industry where we are being told, by some talking heads, there is NO revenue growth <VBG>.
The trend you observed (and which I consider a given, i.e. that unit growth will always be stronger than revenue growth) has existed the whole time that Gateway increased their bottom line at a CAGR of around 20% from 1996 thru 1999.
It's funny how the when margins were in question the nay sayers focused on the bottom line. Now, when margins turned out to be surprisingly robust and erosion much less than anticipated (due primarily to component cost declines), these same pundits want to ignore everything else and look only at the top line growth. Keep changing the story and one can always find something that isn't perfect. The bottom line is that Gateway continues to show solid top and bottom line growth in what some would have you believe is a disastrous state of affairs for the PC industry (of course these same people have been saying that the PC industry is a no growth disaster since mid 1995).
<And you get a lot more performance for rapidly declining ASP's.>
Yup......this has been the case as long as I have been buying PC's starting with my old 8086...and I have all the receipts to prove it <gg>. At that time I remember paying around $500 for a 40Meg Hardcard drive. I also remember a couple years later paying an extra $500 to upgrade from a 100M to a 200M (state of the art drive at the time) when I ordered my Gateway 386-25 <gg>. Prices will continue to drop, costs will continue to drop, and PC will continue to get more powerful. All great for the consumer, as you mentioned.
FF |
