Lucius - OK, thanks. I'm sure HP will be a force in the server business, my only thought there would be that HP hasn't made a quarter in some time (even with their PC business growing rapidly), and they seem to have 'IBM like' levels of staff, thus they are not currently competitive on a cost basis. That said, I'm sure they will 'get' more competitive. Also, CPQ is already mean and very lean, and with their war chest and technology I would not count them out. Right now, indications are that the big four will be Compaq, Dell, HWP, and IBM. The pundits say they may control 70% of the PC market in the future. I also find it very hard to believe that with the volumes CPQ brings to the table, that they will be 'very far back in the line'. What percentage of Intel's business might you think Compaq provides???? (Hint - they had 19% of the PC business in the US based on the latest IDC numbers)!!
John
PS - There have also been some interesting posts on the Compaq thread over the past two days in regard to Compaq helping Intel out in testing Pentium when it was released, that they helped them out quite a bit. I have no idea what transpired, but the posts were interesting... |
