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To: Gottfried who wrote (8899)	3/5/2003 10:22:36 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95639

Retail Sales of PC Products Up in 2nd Half of 2002 Wed Mar 5, 4:29 PM ET story.news.yahoo.com NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) may be stealing headlines and customers with its direct sales model, but the percentage of computer-related sales from retail stores rose in the second half of last year, market research firm NPD Group said on Wednesday. The figures include all computer products such as personal computers, printers, hard disk drives and ink cartridges and excludes software. "The stuff that was selling in the second half of 2002 were things that are much more retail-oriented, things like accessories," said NPD director Stephen Baker. Sales of those types of items, like digital cameras and printer cartridges, have not moved over to the Internet the way sales of personal computers have, Baker said. PC sales have been weak for the past two years due to a build up in technology during the 1990s and the weak economy, which has corporations cutting back on buying new technology. In the second half of 2002, retail sales accounted for 65.2 percent, or $16.7 billion out of a total of $25.6 billion in computer product sales in the U.S. In the year-earlier period, retail store sales accounted for 64.8 percent of total computer product sales, or $16.2 billion. Direct sales to customers of computer products from companies like Dell and Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - news) were $8.9 billion, or 34.8 percent of second half 2002 sales, compared with $8.8 billion, or 35.2 percent, the previous year, NPD said. In the direct sales category, NPD said that 85 percent of sales came from desktops and notebooks in the second half compared with 90 percent in the year earlier period. Sales volumes of desktop computers fell 7 percent while notebook sales rose 3.5 percent.