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To: secrus2 who wrote (6987)	3/3/1999 10:59:00 AM
From: TEMFASSBAL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7841

<<Who or what countervail slowdown in PC sector ? >> The real question is (or should be) how deep is this "slow down"....heres my read...we have a poor Jan. on the back of a great Dec/Christmas season (that makes sense to me) and some push out on purchases waiting for the PIII (also makes sense and is consistent with past INTC new tech ramps)...thus this Q in PC land is no good...will it extend to next Q (and beyond) or will demand come back...how does Y2K play into the end of the year?...lots of questions...I guess my point is I'm not sure of the answers but I tend to believe this slowdown will be shorter in term than longer...I don't buy the "nuclear winter" call for the PC market at all...its still a little early for that... I wouldn't be surprised if we hear some of the "worst is behind us" "we're seeing a return to anticipated demand" boiler plate out of the Calendar Q1 conf calls. Tim

To: secrus2 who wrote (6987)	3/3/1999 11:26:00 AM
From: William Epstein	Respond to of 7841

Valeri Evdokimov; Good question. I think the person to answer it is stitch. He knows better than anyone else how the industry works. PHOTOMAN

To: secrus2 who wrote (6987)	3/3/1999 11:45:00 AM
From: Sam	Respond to of 7841

"If DDMs have been selling well who have been buying well ?" Even though the Pc and the DD sectors are interrelated in obvious ways, they are NOT identical. The former can be in a [relative] slump, while the latter may be healthy at the same time. And the opposite--the latter may be in an unhealthy state with the former going well (which was pretty much the situation last year). The reason is that demand is only one side of the equation, the other being (drum roll for Econ 101) supply. If the participating companies in the DD sector collectively want to make money, and they are at approximately the same place technically, then they will make money. They will simply adjust their production to whatever the demand is. This is easy to do as long they cover their fixed production/factory costs and relative market shares are in synch, and the participating companies are happy enough with their share. If they are at the same place technically, but want to increase market share more than they want to make money (e.g., they may wish to squeeze a teetering competitor, or they may believe that their longer range success will be greater with more market share), then the sector won't be healthy.