Lynn- A couple points here...
(1) Dell's weak January was captured in last quarter's results..So, Dell (partially, at least) paid the piper with the stock's big fall in mid/late February)..Additionally, Dell has had two months of PIII sales here, and Compaq only one (hard to know how much stimulus PIII has provided, but should have given some bump)
(2) The increasing pricing competitiveness is likely due to Dell getting more aggressive in the corporate sector. In Dell's CC, they said that they were not aggressive enough last quarter...Compaq probably is paying some price for this this quarter..
(3) Compaq stuffed the channel in 4Q '97, and, even if it was for legitimate business reasons, probably had too much inventory in the pipeline this past quarter too....IMO, Compaq has not done a good job to explain this..
(4) IMO, Compaq's problems (this quarter) are largely their own...1st quarter '99 sales are pretty typical for the season. Note: No warning from Intel...given Compaq's announcement, and assuming Intel made their number, those chips must have gone somewhere (Dell, Gateway...)
I agree that the boxmakers will have to show results..but this has always, more or less, been the case... |
