Steve Fortuna Quotations

IDC saw worldwide unit growth in 3Q of roughly 18.3 percent, while Dataquest saw worldwide unit growth around 15.2 percent. Averaging the two together puts it in the mid-to-high 16 percent range, which is roughly in line with our forecast 17 percent for 3Q.

Our view is that Apple has had very good growth over the past couple of years, largely driven by upgrade cycle to its existing installed base.

We believe the company will meet its downwardly revised numbers in the third quarter, as well as bless the current fourth-quarter outlook.

We believe Dell will preannounce a miss for the January quarter, most likely within the next two weeks. We also think the company will use the opportunity to lower next year's sales growth outlook from 20 percent to 15-20 percent,

We believe that the Cube is too pricey at $1,799 to appeal to consumers in volume, while few professional users are going to opt for the Cube based on its award-winning design.

could fall victim to the difficult times that lie ahead for the industry.

What I was expecting was a lot of weakness on the gross margin side, but that the revenue line would be reasonably decent. What it looks like here is the whole thing, top to bottom, is going to be quite weak.

While we believe that most of the steps Gateway is taking are necessary and desirable, we do not think that the withdrawal from international markets, especially Europe, is in the company's best long-term interests.

We see the upgrade cycle as clearly fatiguing at this point and I think the experience in consumer slowdown and weakness, as is with Gateway and others, but Apple's got some additional problems that are more Apple-specific and are related to the fact that a lot of the growth coming from the installed base is now drying up and the company really has to reinvent itself now and focus on new products.

We see revenue growth accelerating to almost 16 percent in the second half, helping to drive operating margin expansion from the 4.5 percent recorded in first quarter 2000, and the 5.4 percent that we expect this quarter, to 6.3 percent and 8.2 percent in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

We see Europe as an important market for Gateway with lower PC penetration rates and the potential for higher long-term growth rates in the consumer & small business markets than in the U.S..

We do not see this as a one-quarter phenomenon for Apple, but rather as the beginning of many tough quarters ahead.

We went out with a call and said that we'd be cautious about buying the stock in the low 30s, because there's another shoe to drop. And in fact, that shoe dropped last night. We now view the story as being relatively clean. And I think they now have a base upon which they can build for the long-term. It's important to understand that the opportunity set for Dell longer term really has not changed very much.

Despite some interesting announcements and a solid display of exciting technology, we don't walk away with the sense that the near-to-medium term prospects for the company are any brighter than previously thought.

Dell recently established a separate storage business... Dell has only been selling external storage for about two years, and it is already the number six player in the market, with roughly a $1 billion run rate.

Also, and very importantly, we think there is a high likelihood that management significantly lowers its earnings per share outlook during its analyst meeting this week, well below the current $1.28 Street consensus.

We think these results are good, in line with our expectations, and think we are set up for a good 4Q,

In our opinion, investors should not read this Apple blowup as evidence that PC demand is weak. Apple is, in many ways, a market unto itself.

Apple has a lack of any real new products to drive strong year-over-year unit growth. Its existing products are getting stale.

Apple is, in many ways, a market unto itself, ... We believe there is a high likelihood that investors will overreact to this news and take down the PC names in sympathy. We would particularly view this as a buying opportunity for Gateway, and to a lesser extent, Compaq and Dell.

Apple is, in many ways, a market unto itself. We believe there is a high likelihood that investors will overreact to this news and take down the PC names in sympathy. We would particularly view this as a buying opportunity for Gateway, and to a lesser extent, Compaq and Dell.

All of our regular checks with companies and channel contacts continue to suggest that PC demand remains weak, especially in the U.S..