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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (154497)	3/3/2000 2:47:00 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Hi Kemble! Here is an overview from CNET about Hardware sales this quarter! :)Leigh news.cnet.com. Hardware makers see stronger sales this quarter By Jim Davis Staff Writer, CNET News.com March 3, 2000, 10:55 a.m. PT update After a series of disappointing earnings announcements following PC component shortages and sales slowdowns, hardware executives now say that business is getting back on track. Still, analysts say that there are enough open-ended questions to make the forecast for PC demand unclear. "My feeling is that we're in a trough between two waves," International Data Corp. analyst Roger Kay said. Analysts and industry executives have lost sleep over the past few months wondering when corporate customers would get back to stores to buy new hardware. The slump followed a serious ramp-up in sales as businesses spent tons of money buying new computers to prepare for the so-called millennium bug. Quote Snapshot DELL 46.44 +1.50 CPQ 28.31 +1.62 IBM 109.00 +5.88 HWP 137.75 +3.75 GTW 68.88 +1.25 Enter symbol: ú Symbol Lookup More from CNET Investor Quotes delayed 20+ minutes Kay said that current lackluster sales follow frenzied purchasing before the new year but could precede new sales related to the widespread rollout of Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system. "January was the best start Intel has had in years," said Dan Niles, analyst with Robertson Stephens. There are others signs that sales are picking up for the computer hardware industry as well, according to Niles. Micron Technology, which supplies memory components for PCs, said its inventory of chips is coming down, and for semiconductor companies in general, January and February sales results didn't show the kind of seasonal slowdown normally expected, he said. "We've seen a pickup in sales (for PC companies) since the Windows 2000 launch, and there will be more momentum from that as the year progresses. That means the stocks will also perform better as the year goes on," Niles said. Dell, Compaq, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway all started off the year by reporting earnings that were lower than originally anticipated, sparking concerns about the health of the overall PC market. Another lingering uncertainty was how long corporate customers would wait to start buying in 2000, given that Windows 2000 didn't launch until Feb. 17--about halfway through the quarter for companies like Gateway and Compaq. Now, PC makers appear to be getting over their New Year's hangover, if preliminary indications hold up. "The Y2K impact, if there was one, was (basically backwards) from what people expected," Webb McKinney, vice president of Hewlett-Packard's PC organization, told CNET News.com. November and December were very strong, but January was slower than expected, noted McKinney, who recently spoke at a technology investment conference sponsored by Robertson Stephens. "The early indication is that things are picking back up this month," he said. Sales of Hewlett-Packard consumer PCs are rising faster than the industry average this quarter. The company is benefiting from the exit of Packard Bell and IBM from the retail channel, a company representative said. Gateway financial chief John Todd recently said at the same investor conference that so far, this quarter is shaping up to be better than last. Yet that isn't necessarily a ringing endorsement, given that the company reported lower-than-expected earnings last quarter, citing a slowdown in sales from Year 2000 concerns and component shortages. Regardless, Gateway maintains that the company is on track. Todd said that consumer PC sales were strong in January, but corporate sales were flat. Corporate PC sales improved in February, however, and consumer PC sales internationally have been strong, he said. Analysts expect 16 percent growth in earnings for Gateway in the first quarter of 2000--about three times that of the industry average. The company should be able to meet those numbers, Todd maintained. Preliminary signs seem to indicate a slight rebound in February sales from January's larger-than-usual seasonal slump. At the same time, U.S. and worldwide growth is still not expected to match last year's numbers, according to research firm Dataquest. While last year the industry posted growth rates of around 21 percent, this year Dataquest is currently predicting unit growth of about 15 percent in the United States and 16.2 percent worldwide. PC companies will need to come up with new reasons to get corporate customers to upgrade their PCs this year to maintain growth rates seen over the last three years. "Products such as Compaq's iPaq and HP's eVectra will have to be low-cost, and have a low cost of (ownership)," Dataquest analyst Charles Smulders said. "That will persuade end users to upgrade in what is becoming a saturated market." But is the market saturated? IDC predicts that 12.2 million computers will ship in the United States in the first quarter of 2000, compared with 9.9 million a year ago--a 23 percent jump. However, the forecasts were calculated three months ago; the company plans to release updated figures soon. A large number of corporations spent a significant amount of money upgrading equipment last year in order to minimize any potential Y2K problems. For the first month and a half or so in 2000, Kay said there was a big lag in purchases as companies regrouped to map out their strategies for the introduction of Windows 2000 after it became available in mid-February. Now that Windows 2000 has finally been officially unveiled, PC purchases have been picking up. Also, Kay said that component shortages that afflicted the likes of Gateway at the end of last year have been easing. Compaq chief executive Michael Capellas said last month that he expected a large portion of the company's sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 to come late in the quarter. An IBM representative noted that Big Blue's sales also tend to be slanted towards the latter part of the quarter, so it is too early yet to tell how things are progressing

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (154497)	3/4/2000 12:35:00 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Hi Kemble! This week, Dell joined in the rally! Buying Dell is a "no-brainer" too! By the way, I recommended a Dell Computer to one of my affiliates and his wife! They bought the Dell and they are happy customers! I think he will recommend Dell to his associates now, and he is about to close on two more radio stations, so he will buy more Dell's as well! :)Leigh First, business computing systems expert Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) announced that it would jump into the SMB Web hosting game through its www.dellhost.com website. The move didn't get much play on the Street or anywhere else, likely because business hosting seemed like a no-brainer area for Dell to get into as part of its plan to build "beyond the box" revenue streams by offering Internet-centric services to businesses. fool.com New Competitive Scenario for Verio? By Brian Graney (TMF Panic) March 2, 2000 Small and medium-sized business (SMB) Web hosting and services firm Verio (Nasdaq: VRIO) turned in its Q4 financial results this morning, giving investors who are tracking the four-year-old company's progress a fresh batch of numbers to digest. The company's quarterly loss rolled in at $0.71 per share, which was steeper than last year's loss of $0.51 per share but not quite as bad as the loss of $0.76 per share expected by analysts surveyed by First Call. However, revenues came in at an even $73 million, up a mere 7% sequentially. While not terrible, those numbers were far from the "upside surprise" variety relished by investors and analysts. As a result, Verio's stock, which had risen 73% year-to-date, fell back some 15% this morning. Over the past year, Verio has been adjusting its business model to focus on opportunities in Web hosting and related value-added SMB services while de-emphasizing its roots as a Tier 1 backbone access provider. These new business drivers performed pretty well in Q4, with dedicated hosting revenues rising 48% sequentially and co-location revenues marching up 34%. As far as the revenue mix, these "enhanced and other" revenues, as the firm refers to them, accounted for 56% of total Q4 revenues, up from 38% last year. All told, the company currently hosts 340,000 business websites, up 11% from last quarter's total. Finding demand for these services hasn't been too much of a challenge as Verio is playing into a market segment that appears to be well underserved. That's a double-edged sword, however. On the one hand, investors can expect the company to continue growing its main adoption metrics such as hosted website count and enhanced services revenues at a healthy clip over the foreseeable future. But from a less-rosy point of view, the business opportunity being targeted by Verio is drawing in some well-funded new competitors. In fact, the competitive landscape received a good tilling just last week from a pair of sizable tractors. First, business computing systems expert Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) announced that it would jump into the SMB Web hosting game through its www.dellhost.com website. The move didn't get much play on the Street or anywhere else, likely because business hosting seemed like a no-brainer area for Dell to get into as part of its plan to build "beyond the box" revenue streams by offering Internet-centric services to businesses. Later in the week, computing services outsourcer EDS (NYSE: EDS) also figured it was high-time to stake its own claim to a portion of the business hosting prairie. For EDS, this maneuver has the additional aim of providing the firm with an initial foothold in the related e-business Wild West that is today's application services provider (ASP) market. The dual announcements should probably not be viewed as a direct threat to Verio's existing business, considering the SMB services is still a rather fragmented market place and there seems to be more than enough business opportunity for many competitors. Still, the arrival of Dell and EDS on the scene calls into question the "high barriers to entry" argument that many analysts consider the central competitive advantage foundation supporting the $5 billion-plus Verio house. In time, the firm's scale and position as a first-mover in the SMB marketplace may indeed prove to be an advantage that is not only defensible but highly lucrative as well. But investors committing capital to Verio at this point in the story have good reason to be looking over their shoulders. Related Link: StockTalk, 10/11/99: Verio

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (154497)	3/4/2000 1:47:00 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Hi Again Kemble! Here is another article I just read. Looks like Dell is the solid choice! :)Leigh "Instead of going with the innovator, however, I came down on the side of the solid performers. Dell's Latitude CPx and HP's OmniBook 4150 ran neck-and-neck through testing." washingtonpost.com GEAR Notebooks to Tide You Over Until Next Generation Arrives By Michael Cheek Government Computer News Thursday, March 2, 2000; Page E05 Desktop processors this year will hit a super-high note at the 1-gigahertz clock rate, but mobile-processor speeds won't lag far behind. New technologies from chipmaker Intel Corp. will keep batteries running power-hungry notebooks a little longer. Add to the symphony a few ethereal notes from fast wireless links that rival wired Ethernet rates. With 11 months still to go, I'd call 2000 the year of the portable computer, except that what is now available does not quite yet live up to that promise. Our lab asked notebook makers to send general-purpose 500-MHz Pentium III portables weighing seven pounds or less. Not many vendors make dual-spindle designs at that weight. Heft eliminated several full-featured portables from consideration, but three makers hit the mark. Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. each sent a solid notebook with adequate features. Most notebook makers plan revised or all-new designs based on Intel's new 650-MHz Mobile Pentium III, so stay tuned. In this roundup, the HP and Dell notebooks harked back to their predecessors without showing much innovation. Only Compaq had something new: the redesigned Armada line, launched late last year. Instead of going with the innovator, however, I came down on the side of the solid performers. Dell's Latitude CPx and HP's OmniBook 4150 ran neck-and-neck through testing. The Compaq Armada M700, which integrates a modem and weighs a pound less than the Dell and HP units, did not perform as well as they did. The too-small power button stuck occasionally, and the function and arrow keys were meager in size. Compaq added a third button to allow scrolling, but its awkward placement often caused me to hit it when I meant to hit the often-used left button. The third button was not programmable, as it should be, and it came nowhere close to the handiness of a wheel for scrolling. The Armada's component benchmark performance fell into line with the other 500-MHz Pentium III notebooks. But in the real-life application scripts of Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation's Winstone 99, the Compaq unit performed on average about 19 percent slower than the other two. Perhaps over-engineered drivers interfered. I checked with Compaq's notebook lab tester and confirmed that Compaq itself got similar results. Slower performance isn't a fatal flaw. I prefer solid reliability to breakneck speed, but the Armada sometimes simply paused, as if it were thinking about the key I had just pressed. The problem wasn't confined to one review unit. Compaq earlier had sent another Armada M700 that displayed similar hiccups. The Armada's battery life was middle-of-the-road. On the lab's maximum-drain torture test, it survived about two hours. Taking into account the weight of the lithium-ion battery, the Compaq lasted about eight minutes per ounce of battery weight--not bad. The Dell Latitude CPx survived a bit longer--two hours, 15 minutes, or about nine minutes per battery ounce. The HP OmniBook came in third, surviving about two hours; its slightly heavier battery delivered about 7 1/2 minutes per ounce. Although the Dell performed better in battery life, the HP OmniBook squeaked out slightly better benchmark scores--except in hard-drive access, in which it blew the other two notebooks away. In all other categories, its scores compared to those of the Dell. So I checked the original-equipment makers of the Dell and HP units. A nameplate isn't a true indicator of who manufactures something. In conjunction with Asian manufacturers that produce several brands, Dell, HP and Compaq design and have their notebooks made overseas except for final assembly and customization here. I first thought the Dell and HP portables might have come from the same factory, but research indicated they didn't. Taiwanese companies Compal Electronics Inc. and Quanta Computer Inc. make the OmniBook and the Latitude, respectively. Nonetheless, their similarities were uncanny, from the speaker and power-button placements to the nearly identical weights. Both notebooks had almost the same complement of ports, including a single USB (Universal Serial Bus) plug. The Dell had an S-video out port; in the same place, the HP had a small button to mute speakers. Both notebooks came with two pointing devices: a touch pad and an eraser-tip pointer. Both had four buttons, two for the left mouse button and two for the right. Neither the HP nor the Dell unit had an integrated modem. The Compaq Armada line is going to get an integrated network adapter, but all three test units lacked one. In future revisions, the makers should incorporate communications devices that won't take up one of the two PC Card slots. Of course, wireless networking requires a PC Card slot, but the infrastructure for the recently approved 11-megabytes-per-second wireless standard needs building out, so current notebooks need a wire-based integrated fast ethernet adapter. Compaq and HP both included a DVD-ROM drive for their modular bays. The Dell unit came standard with a CD-ROM drive, but DVD was an option. All three had hot-swap bays, although the Dell and Compaq units supplied a cable to attach the third spindle--generally a floppy drive--without having to swap out. That's a nice feature for in-office use. All three had good-quality, 14.1-inch XGA displays. Compaq's could have been brighter. All used similar 8-megabyte graphics adapters from ATI Technologies Inc. of Thornhill, Ontario. Overall, the three 500-MHz notebooks make solid players, although the Armada's quirky hardware hurt its score. ¸ Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company