From Fleckenstein's market rap...http://www.siliconinvestor.com/insight/contrarian/index.gsp?...EEEEk!. . . Last night, E-machines (EEEE), the number-three seller of consumer PCs, talked about broad-based weakness across all PC price points and all retail channels (naturally, there were only three analysts on the EEEEk!. . . Last night, E-machines (EEEE), the number-three seller of consumer PCs, talked about broad-based weakness across all PC price points and all retail channels (naturally, there were only three analysts on the conference call, since the stock has dropped from $8 to $1). Of course, we got a whiff of that weakness when we saw the recent IDC numbers for Dell (DELL). And we know what Gateway's (GTW) numbers were like. That's probably why the rumors about Hewlett-Packard (HWP) have some validity. The biggest likely disaster candidates in this area are Compaq (CPQ), Intel (INTC), Gateway, Dell and even Micron (MU) still.
I would like to repeat that the fourth quarter will be an abject disaster for PC sales and for the suppliers, including Intel. Intel will not make the numbers -- in fact, it is only a matter of time before the company is forced to preannounce. It is 100-percent cooked, in my opinion.
I suppose he was also predicting the end of the PC business and Intel back when Packard Bell was having all their problems for the same reason E-machines is. That would be trying to build and sell cheap PCs using the cheapest, lowest reliability components they can get their hands on. If all your quoted author can do is latch onto an E-machines warning, and completely ignore Compaq's stellar quarter (and Gateway), it's obvious all he does is sift through the news looking for the bad stuff. I'm really surprised anyone would copy him onto any SI tech thread.
Tony |
