Adaptec blames, in part, the sub-$1,000 for its
disappointing quarter. "We do believe it's due to a
temporary weakness in the high end of the desk-top
business," Frymire said. "There's a flatness of demand on the high end, and some of that demand has been taken by the sub-$1,000 PC."
Adaptec is also blaming low sales for the quarter on a
"temporary flatness" in demand for servers and
workstations, according to Frymire.
techweb.com
Falling prices for consumer PCs are likely to also drive
down prices for corporate systems, while
simultaneously making it difficult for specialized
thin-client hardware to make inroads on business
desktops.
Earlier this week, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq both
announced consumer PCs with prices starting at about
$800. That comes just a few months after the first
$1,000 PCs made big news.
Users and analysts said they expect these plummeting
prices for home systems will cause corporate desktop
prices to drop from the typical $2,000 per PC to
about $1,200 within a few months.
"The vendors think we're going to keep paying $2,000
for a PC? Ha!" said Tom Loane vice president and
chief investment officer at GE Capital Transport
International Pool (TIP), in Devon, Pa.
techweb.com
Lorin Olsen, a senior manager for Sprint, in Kansas
City, Mo., said the company will buy consumer PCs
when any corporate PCs need replacement midway
through their normal lifecycle. If a PC is very old,
however, Sprint prefers to replace it with a
top-of-the-line model to get the maximum lifespan
from the investment. |
