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

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (168650)	2/4/2002 9:00:39 PM
From: Chas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Has anyone seen this?? ---------------------- Wednesday January 30 08:15 PM EST Dell: PCs hit by sound card drought By John G. Spooner, ZDNet News A shortage of Turtle Beach sound cards is causing a bottleneck in shipments of high-end Dimension desktops, warns Dell. Customers can expect to wait more than 30 days for delivery. An unexpected shortage of sound cards is forcing Dell Computer to delay shipments of certain configurations of its high-end consumer PCs. Dell is warning customers that a limited supply of Santa Cruz sound cards from Voyetra Turtle Beach is prolonging delivery on some of its Dimension 8200, 4400 and 3800S desktops. New PCs with the card could take "more than 30 days to ship," according to Dell's Web site. Dell usually ships PCs within three to five business days. The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker has tried to notify customers with existing orders about the snag. However, at least some Dell customers are expressing frustration over the delay in e-mails to CNET News.com and on Dell's DellTalk customer Web site. At least one customer canceled an order because of the delay, choosing a different Dell instead. On Wednesday, a Dell representative confirmed the delay of more than 30 calendar days. In addition, a Voyetra Turtle Beach representative confirmed a shortage of the cards, citing higher-than-expected demand from Dell and retail stores. "It's just a matter of cranking them out fast enough to meet demand," the Voyetra Turtle Beach representative said, adding that the Yonkers, N.Y.-based company expects to be able to meet demand within the next month. Although consumers can order Dell PCs with other sound cards, Voyetra Turtle Beach's card is crucial for consumers who want to buy a top-of-the-line system from Dell. The card makes it possible to use high-end Altec Lansing ADA995 speakers with the desktops. The sound card and speakers, which are collectively a $300 upgrade, provide the PC with surround sound and also support THX, a sound system developed by Lucasfilm to provide realistic audio for movie theaters and home theater. Other PC makers may also be affected by the shortage. IBM offers the sound card in certain NetVista desktops. IBM representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. The problem caused by the Santa Cruz sound card is the latest in a series of delays that have sporadically hit Dell's Dimension 8000 desktop line. Demand for the 8000 line has been greater than anticipated at times--a situation faced by other makers of deluxe consumer PCs as well. Dell saw lead times on its 8200 with a 2GHz Intel Pentium 4 stretch to 40 days in November because of a shortage of the chip. After receiving a shipment of the chips, Dell filled those orders within a few days. The year before, customers trying to buy certain configurations of the Dimension 8100 faced delivery delays during the holiday-shopping season because of component issues. Meanwhile, other high-end components are currently causing less severe delivery snags for Dell. Dimension PCs fitted with a 15-inch flat-panel monitor--one of the hotter items in the consumer market today--are on lead times of 10 business days, and those with DVD+RW drives are on lead times of 18 business days, according to a notice posted last week on the DellTalk Web site. Because Intel and others have integrated audio support into their chipsets, the sound card market is relatively small. No more than 15 percent of the audio market related to PCs is comprised of add-in cards, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Voyetra Turtle Beach and Creative Labs are the main manufacturers of such cards.

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (168650)	2/5/2002 1:08:20 PM
From: kaka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Dell posted a 26.7 percent rise in 2001 PC shipments to grab a 4.4 percent share of the Japanese market. By contrast, domestic industry leaders NEC and Fujitsu were able to retain their respective number one and two spots, but saw their shipments fall 11 percent and 1.9 percent. Japan '02 domestic PC shipments seen down slightly By Daniel Hauck TOKYO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Japan's domestic shipments of personal computers are expected to fall again in 2002, with a recovery in the battered domestic PC market not likely until the fourth quarter, an industry group said on Tuesday. The drop in 2002 shipments would follow a two percent decline in 2001, which was the first in three years, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) said. A prolonged slowdown in information technology spending and Japan's slumping economy weighed on demand for PCs in 2001, and JEITA said it saw little reason to expect the market to improve until the latter part of 2002. "It will be difficult to see a "plus" in the first half of the year," said Masatsugu Shinozaki, a Hitachi Ltd <6501.T> executive on the association's PC industry committee. "We're hoping to see things rise in the third quarter, but if you look at it overall, the opinion in the industry is that it probably won't occur until the fourth," he said. However, the PC market in the United States appeared to have begun to recover slightly, he said. The tempered outlook for 2002 follows recent announcements by computer makers such as NEC Corp <6701.T> and Toshiba Corp <6502.T> of sharp third quarter losses and downward revisions for the year to next March. JEITA said domestic shipments of personal computers fell nine percent in the October-December quarter, with only the positive effect from the November introduction of the Japanese edition of Microsoft Corp's <MSFT.O> newest PC operating system, Windows XP, preventing a yet larger drop. "If it weren't for the effect of Windows XP, it's possible the drop in consumer shipments would have been more than around 20 percent," Shinozaki said, adding that business shipments were around the same level as the previous year. Despite the October-December quarter, JEITA said it was keeping unchanged its October forecast for domestic shipments of 10.6 million PCs for the 12 months ending on March 31, although it could not be overly optimistic about hitting the forecast. A decline in 2001/02 shipments would be the first fall since a five percent contraction in 1997/98, and would come a mere year after 2000/01's record shipment of 12.1 million units. JEITA officials said the October-December figures were slightly better than the previous quarter, when domestic PC shipments fell 21 percent year-on-year, with notebook PC sales particularly showing some signs for encouragement. They said PC prices in October-December rose on a quarter-on-quarter basis, although they were down year-on-year. COMPETITION WEIGHS Another factor behind the downturn and continued weak outlook for the domestic market was the increasing inroads made by PC foreign manufacturers in Japan, the world's second-largest market. JEITA's 17 member firms represent more than 90 percent of domestic PC shipments, but U.S. PC manufacturers such as Dell Computer Corp <DELL.O> and Compaq Computer Corp <CPQ.N> are not included in the association's tally. According to market research firm Multimedia Research Institute Ltd, Dell posted a 26.7 percent rise in 2001 PC shipments to grab a 4.4 percent share of the Japanese market. By contrast, domestic industry leaders NEC and Fujitsu were able to retain their respective number one and two spots, but saw their shipments fall 11 percent and 1.9 percent. Multimedia has forecast a 6.5 percent year-on-year fall in 2002 domestic shipments, echoing JEITA's forecast of a mild recovery in the second half as the U.S. economy picks up and high-speed internet services in Japan help to spur growth.