To All, PC unit sales came in even worse than expected, down 8% from fourth quarter. The question is, how do we work in revenues to this unit decline? I don't really know. I don't have as good a handle on ASPs this quarter as I did last. I will muse about it here, but these are not cast in concrete.
Gateway had unit sales that were up 42% year to year, but revenues were only up 22%. That looks like a dandy drop in ASPs, but we have to remember that Gateway is a consumer co. and there is no way to read the prices of the larger business customer side from their numbers. Their drop in unit sales of 8.7% from 4Q were a bit higher than the industry, but pretty strong given that consumer orientation. The 25% drop in eps from 4Q was kind of regular.
IBM's PC revenues were down 20% while I don't have a unit number for them 4Q.
DQ suggests that Dell and HP both increased unit sales sequentially, but, once again, do not tell us the price at which they did so or the revenue implications. I have heard from analysts of a flat ASP at Dell, in which case revenues would be up in the mid teens sequentially. I will believe it when I see it, as I am not hearing about flat revenues from more reliable sources. HP seems to have units up 1 or 2% sequentially, which should be wiped out by ASP declines.
In all, it looks like another stinko quarter for the industry, and this is the last of the easy year over year comparisons.
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