PC Sales Fell Sharply During the Holiday Season, Shocking Microsoft
PC Sales Fell Sharply During the Holiday Season, Shocking Microsoft
Posted 01/15/2009 at 4:38pm
| by Pulkit Chandna
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At the moment it is difficult to write about major financial developments in any industry without going on a frenzied hunt for words that can adequately describe the prevalent gloom. However, facts have a tongue of their own and at times don’t need to be underpinned by forceful words. Talking of facts, the previous quarter was the worst in the past six years in terms of PC sales.
PC sales data for the last quarter released by two of the leading market research firms, IDC and Gartner, paints a very grim picture. PC sales defied all expectations during the recently concluded holiday season and registered a trough. According to Gartner, PC sales only grew by 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter. But if data released by IDC is to be believed, then there was a depreciation of 0.4 percent.
Microsoft had predicted a growth of 10 percent to12 percent during the fourth quarter. The sharp drop in PC sales might have a huge impact on Microsoft’s own quarterly results.
Image Credit: BBC
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hogkill
January 20, 2009 at 9:41am
Making a big flop by investing in Vista's developement does not mean Microsoft should continue to promote it simply because they've already made it. They are not making as much money doing this as they could be by continuing to support XP.
If Ballmer wasn't so short sited and incompetent he'd be getting his developers and marketers working on "XP Platinum edition". A more powerful version of XP, incorporating a conservative amount of only the most essential Vista features into it, and the addition of directX 10.
Vista was tarnished at launch and no matter how much they have polished it since, they are foolish to think the public is going to forget about it. They should just be going with what makes them the most money at the moment.
hg2WJW
January 16, 2009 at 12:40pm
I guess the lesson is that Microsoft doesn't know their shit and can't be trusted. What else is new?
Mike
bjoswald
January 16, 2009 at 9:56am
I don't think anybody reading this is any bit surprised. As previous posters have outlined, the economy is in deep shit, jobs are being cut, and so on. If any major corporation has enough momentum left to stay afloat, it's the huge corporate behemoths that have enough financial anchorage to stay grounded. (Of course I'm talking about Microsoft, but hey, everyone gets a little disconnected now and then.) Expecting a profitable turnout in times like this isn't insane, but expecting one within Microsoft's and Sony's margins are just a little fucking nuts. Considering the fiascos surrounding the PS3 and Vista in conjunction with the horrible economy, it'll be fun to watch these two bicker about who's better. Oh, hell. Who am I kidding? We're already past round one!
jcollins
January 16, 2009 at 9:36am
The economy's in the crapper, companies are going out of business, people are losing jobs left and right, states are cutting back their budgets, MS is doing its best to get beyond Vista, cats and dogs living together, it's total anarchy! And Microsoft expects a 10% growth in the 4'th quarter... I think someone's a bit disconnected with reality there...
Budgetperson
January 15, 2009 at 7:35pm
You realize it's not Microsoft's fault that OS'es are bloated? It's the systems' manufactuer's faults for putting a bunch of software on the system. If you build it yourself, I can easily see a $600 PC outperforming an XboX. You might say it's more expensive, but then again it can do a ton of more stuff as well (web browsing, photo/vid editing, google) like the other poster said.
Redace42
January 15, 2009 at 7:20pm
i don't
know if you know this but the xbox, and zune portion of MS is one of
their departments that is actually making money, and i don't think
that the xbox is killing windows. Just because a xbox "can"
out run a pc like u say does not mean that it is stopping sales of
windows. You cant edit photos, movies, torrents stuff, surf the Internet,
ect on the xbox. So i think it is kind of crazy to say that the xbox
is the downfall of windows, and wouldn't you, if in charge of a
company pump more money into some that is bring back money?
kleinkinstein
January 15, 2009 at 5:09pm
"Microsoft had predicted a growth of 10 percent to12 percent during the fourth quarter."
Really? It just shows how dissconnected they are from the real world!
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