To All, things that make you say "hmmmmmm." 1. Very few in the media picked up on the NYT story while Electronic News Magazine even wrote a fluff piece in which MU was treated as heroes.
2. Has anyone heard or read or spotted smoke signals in the media about pc sales growth being negative last year? Everyone knows I poo poo conspiracy theories, but this is phenomenal. I have seen scores of stories about gangbuster unit sales growth. They were actually flat for the year. Jim Cramer, the Everwrong Bunny, even wrote a piece about how perservering pc sales growth has been despite the predictions of doom and gloom types. "Uh, Jim, they've been straight down, falling off a cliff, for 4 years now and finally turned negative last year. Don't you read the numbers before you write, old son."
But so far, not one reporter has taken out his calculator and said, unit sales up 12%, prices down, what, 15%, 20%, 30%? I don't know the exact number, but negative growth it certainly is. I guess if analysts or IDC or Dataquest don't call the reporters, then they can't think to ask the question themselves. Pretty sad. BTW, the reason I am unsure of the exact amount is that I have no idea how you account for a free printer and monitor in ASP. I know you pretend that OEM incentives, read price cuts, didn't happen, which tends to fluff the number up a bit.
3. I've been having some fun discussions on the Compaq thread. They are still true believers over there. Some of them are otherwise bright people, and, a few, like Robbie, know a lot of the facts and don't care as long as the stock goes up. I have respect for that. I have a problem when a guy who owns the stock asks me where I get off saying that receivables are up big time. Uh, from the eps report, dude. <G> Ought to read it some time if you own the stock. Or, as some on SI have discovered, even read the 10Q. The scamsters can lie in news releases, but they back off a bit when facing Uncle Sugar's review.
Good Luck,
MB |
