Hewlett-Packard & Gateway feeling the heat from DELL?????
Drew:
Looks like HP had enough of the PC biz,guess can't stand the heat.Also heard Gateway is not having as good a Q4 as expected according to their CEO and hence the 11% or so drop in price of their stock today. I have a feeling that DELL might be taking their market share,well actually it was reported in one of them research reports by IDC or DATAQUEST or one of the other guys.
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(Source:ComputerWorld)
(Online News, 12/03/98 02:05 PM)
Platt: HP to move on from the PC
By Elinor Mills
Hewlett-Packard Co. is looking beyond the PC and planning to make networked devices that will enable people to hook into the "information utility" of pervasive computing, said Lewis Platt, HP's chairman, president and CEO.
"Today, we look at the Internet and the Web as the first step toward the information utility," Platt said in a talk at Business Week's conference The Digital Economy, held in San Francisco yesterday.
He described information utility as a computing environment that is independent of devices, locations and users.
Platt envisioned a future where hundreds of different types of special-purpose devices "could act together as a virtual computer" with everything else on the network.
"Hewlett-Packard is very excited about the downstream opportunity to build appliances to plug in to the new utility," he said. He pointed to HP's CapShare, which scans up to 50 pages of information that can be downloaded into a computer through an infrared port. "We think this is the kind of appliance that will become very popular," Platt said.
He doesn't see the new devices replacing PCs, but he said they will offer capabilities that PCs don't.
"I'm not exactly predicting the demise of the PC," which he described as a "pretty crude device." But he said most users are "a lot better off with an intuitive device."
During a question and answer session, Platt said HP has suffered financially and strategically as a result of not moving quickly enough to the new Internet business model, particularly in marketing and distribution.
HP was slow to get out the message that it offers "capabilities around the new e-business" and in selling online, partly because it didn't want to ruffle its distributors' feathers, Platt said. "The channel has finally accepted that we have to do that."
The Palo Alto, Calif., company will sell its products in four ways, he said: through retail stores and existing distribution channels; by directing Internet users to channel partners; via electronic ordering kiosks in stores; and directly to customers through the HP Web site.
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(Source:Bloomberg-Excerpts only)
Gateway Shares Fall on Concern About 4th-Qtr Revenue (Update4)
Gateway Shares Fall on Concern About 4th-Qtr Revenue (Update4) (Adds company comment in 5th paragraph.)
North Sioux City, South Dakota, Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) --Gateway 2000 Inc. shares fell 11.4 percent on concern that fourth-quarter sales at the No. 2 direct seller of personal computers won't be as strong as expected.
Gateway fell 6 11/16 to 51 3/4 as 4.95 million shared changed hands, more than twice the three-month daily average.
Chief Executive Ted Waitt told investors and analysts at a Credit Suisse First Boston technology conference late yesterday that fourth-quarter revenue would be higher than last quarter, though lower than Gateway expected, said investors who attended the closed meeting.
Gateway attributed the shortfall to lackluster PC shipments in October and November, which means it will have to ship more PCs in December to meet expectations, investors said. ''We said we have to sell a lot of computers in December,'' said Gateway spokeswoman Angela Peacock, who said sales since Thanksgiving have been strong. ''We're too early in this very important month of the quarter to change our guidance.''
Gateway beat earnings forecasts in the third quarter as shipments surged 43 percent. It also benefited from back-to- school sales and improved demand in Asia.
Holiday Season
PC makers' fourth-quarter sales traditionally are strong because of the holiday-sales season. North Sioux City, South Dakota-based Gateway said in October that it expected fourth- quarter results to improve, though it didn't provide details........
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