Loren Loverde Pc Quotations

Some consumers will certainly delay PC purchases until Vista is available, but we expect the delay to shift only moderate volume from the fourth quarter of 2006 into 2007 and will not cause a loss of sales.

Hard times persist in the PC market, but vendors are working diligently to stimulate growth and the outlook has started to improve in the United States and Europe.

Currently, the economic environment is not the critical factor affecting PC adoption cycles. What we're seeing now is a combination of PC replacements and new users responding to low-price milestones.

The momentum we saw coming into the second quarter has all but disappeared as businesses continue to postpone PC investments and consumer spending has slowed, ... Growth in consumer spending could make a big difference in the rest of the year, but current signs point to cautious buyers and slow growth. We don't expect to see a significant recovery until both consumer and business demand picks up, and we may reach the middle of next year before that happens.

Instead of a dramatic effect on PC shipment volume, the delay will probably have a larger impact on PC vendor and Microsoft marketing efforts that will need to be adjusted to fit the release schedule. That will add complexity and cost.

The cumulative impact of a worsening economy, declining capital investments and reduced consumer spending is strongly affecting the Japanese market. Although the Japanese market resisted for a while, it now looks like the PC market in Japan will be flat-to-negative into 2002.