Along with positive earnings reports this week by IBM and Intel, the latest figures on PC shipments pubslihed on Wednesday by Gartner and IDC should offer some relief to technology investors who have been trying to assess the likely impact of a US slowdown on sales of IT equipment.
Both groups found that the US slowdown had begun to hit PC shipments in the US. But they also found that slower US growth was more than made up for by a stronger-than-expected preformance overseas.
Still, investors would be wise not to breathe a sigh of relief just yet. For one thing, it’s likely that PC makers were forced to cut prices significantly to counter sagging demand in the US – a move that is likely to eat away at the industry’s already thin margins. We’ll know more about that next month, when the big PC companies report their latest results.
In the meantime, investors trying to sort out their investment strategies will have plenty to chew over, particuarly when it comes to Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest PC makers.
Gartner’s latest figures showed that HP’s US shipments shrank in the first quarter. The decline was a slight one, but potentially worrying given a strong improvement by Dell, which is a year into its own turnaround.
Unfortunately for investors, it’s unlikely that the PC industry’s muddled picture will clear up anytime soon.
