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Marc, out of all the boxmakers, Apple, Dell and GTW are the only pure plays in the US. IBM, HWP, CPQ, MU are all complex. But for what it's worth Dell doesn't have seasonal variations in rev/earnings. Its qtr earnings have been consistently sequentially up since 1996 without a miss. Its qtr revenues have been consistently sequentially up since 1995 with only one flat seq qtr. Gateway is a different picture. It exhibits seasonal variations similar to Apple with Q4 being strongest, followed by a drop in Q1. Q1 to Q2 being usually flat to slightly down and then ramping in Q3 back to Q4. Obviously, GTW results not out yet but from 97 to 98 which looked typical, rev fell from 1.98B to 1.73B, a 12.5% decline. Apple's was 1.7B to 1.53B for a 10% decline so quite similar. I'll look into the non-pure play companies. Rich |
