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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (1505)	7/12/2002 12:02:24 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

European PC sales take another dip By Reuters July 12, 2002, 5:50 AM PT Hopes for a recovery in Europe's PC market were dashed on Friday by research group Gartner, which sees another dip in the second quarter. The research group, which is expected to issue its final second-quarter statistics late next week, said that unit sales in Europe in the second quarter will be the worst since the third quarter of 2001. "It will be the worst fall since the third quarter of last year. The outlook is not good, because a number of major markets have slowed down," said principal analyst Brian Gammage. The weak second quarter means the market is making an about-turn from the hesitant recovery that started after the disastrous third quarter of last year. Worldwide unit sales in the first quarter were roughly flat compared with the same period a year earlier. That was a big improvement from the 6 percent year-on-year drop in the fourth quarter that in turn was a step up from the 12 percent decline in the third quarter of 2001. Gammage's comments come after Dell Computer's positive second-quarter forecast on Thursday of sales of $8.3 billion. Earnings per share will be 19 cents, one cent higher than its May 16 forecast. Analysts pointed out that Dell's good tidings are bad news for its rivals Hewlett-Packard and Gateway. "There doesn't appear to be a pickup in the market. Dell's operating margin upside could mean further room to put pressure on competitors to gain share," said Bear Sterns analyst Andrew Neff. Gartner's Gammage said he expected Dell to have gained share in Europe in the last quarter, but details will be published Thursday. Selling prices for computers, published Friday by Gartner's main rival IDC, showed that a price war, led by Dell, was heating up in response to sluggish demand. "While prices had been on the increase in March and April, after a constant decline throughout 2001, IDC's Pricing Index for May and June indicates a fall," IDC said. Over the two months prices fell some three percent since April. "Dell maintains pressure on the market," IDC said, adding that HP was defending its leadership by cutting prices. Year-on-year, prices have declined by around 10 percent compared with June 2001, the research company added.