Loren Loverde 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.

Maybe we can't keep up the pace, but the market is healthy.

More mature regions like the U.S. and Europe were significantly affected by consumer conservatism and a softening business segment, while Asia and other emerging regions were more robust.

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.

HP's being very competitive. There's a chance they could challenge Dell in the fourth quarter, as they have in fourth quarters before.

HP could have done better. If you look at their growth in the U.S., it was particularly slow.

Growth remains limited, but at least the market is moving in the right direction again. We believe the market is a lot healthier than it was three months ago, as inventories have come down and expectations for growth are more realistic.

Over the past couple years we've seen a recovery, but that rate can't be sustained going forward.

Outside of the industry, there is the stock market decline, concerns about economic trends, oil prices, and the presidential election. Within the industry, consumers are not yet in the upgrade cycle for Windows Millennium Edition, and there aren't really applications demanding faster processors and upgrades.

Market growth ahead of forecasts in almost all regions reflects continuing strong demand.

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 timing of the release will have some impact on when consumers buy, but not so much on whether or not they buy.

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.

Dell has a lot of momentum, and they were tough competitors.

Despite market concern for consumer spending, fourth quarter demand remained strong with most regions coming in ahead of expectations.

Although it is clear that consumer demand in the U.S. is weakening, buying in other regions remains strong. PCs remain the dominant means of accessing the Internet, and a lot of people out there are still buying PCs to get online.

It's a good question. Their results are certainly a sign that we should be cautious.

Following the shocks of 2001 and 2002 many people were impressed with the strength of the market in 2004 but cautious about the foundation and longevity of this growth. The fact that solid double-digit growth has continued through 2005 shows that the market recovery did not peak in 2004 as many expected but is still ongoing.

They keep inventory low. They have very responsive systems, and they have maintained their growth momentum for a long time. In fact, over this whole downturn, they've maintained positive unit growth.

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.

This is a good first step. Gateway had solid year-on-year growth, ... Having strong results in the second quarter shows they are getting things in line and that they could have momentum in the second half.

Although growth has declined slightly from the second and third quarters, the market's resilience in the face of rising interest rates, high fuel prices, a weaker Euro, and other potential inhibitors puts the market in a great position to start 2006.

The general good news is that it's another strong quarter.

The drivers are still there for PCs, and that should sustain the healthy growth in our forecast. But one of the primary drivers for our forecast is also portable adoption.

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.