FWIW, I took a Peter Lynch trip to CompUSA, Circuit City, and Best Buy. Sales people say that although during August and September CPQ sales were doing well, they are trailing quite a bit now. Packard Bell seems to have picked up a lot of steam. Sales folk say that with bundled software, PB is significantly cheaper than CPQ. HWP is bundling printers with their boxes and selling. CPQ is just another box company, and one sales person said that their components such as HD and DVD were not nearly as good. Privately one said he would buy a Dell for personal use.
ie, stories of 40% market share appear to be a statistical blip.
In my limited shopping spree today, CPQ was tied for 3rd with IBM - PB #1, HWP #2. |
