Charles Smulders Quotations

With Vista further out in the future, sales are less likely to slow down now.

Vendors will continue to look for ways to reach new audiences. The key determining factor on channel choice is profitability. I don't think we will see Dell moving into third-party retail anytime soon for that reason.

Vendors must find ways to persuade end-users to replace their PCs more frequently, ... Dataquest believes that the new generation of small form-factor PCs will be instrumental in making this happen.

Mobile growth came to some extent at the expense of desk-based PCs. Emerging regions had steady desk-based PC growth, however it could not offset the very weak desk-based PC growth in the mature regions.

Mobile demand remains strong worldwide, but in the U.S. desktop consumer market demand increased in response to renewed price competition.

Hewlett-Packard significantly narrowed the unit share gap between it and Dell on a worldwide basis compared with a year ago.

I think it may change buying behaviors of people who were willing to wait until the end of the year. They may choose to buy now instead.

It continues to be a very difficult market, and until we see an economic upturn, we should continue to expect that to be the case.

Emerging markets and consumer demand in the mature regions were the major growth engines on a worldwide basis.

This bump in sales in the market is due to PCs that were bought around the Y2K time frame. That's certainly slowing down.

The biggest blunder U.S. companies have made is failing to take into account the nature of local conditions. Failing to understand specific country markets and applying a U.S.-centric model is a recipe for failure.

Strong market growth continued to be driven by lower prices and mobility in the third quarter. These factors sped up new PC adoption and replacement activities. Overall market growth exceeded expectations, with home demand for mobile being particularly strong.

Notebook computers now offer much of the functionality of desktops, and consumers and businesses alike are spending the extra for the added benefit of mobility. In that sense, mobile growth is coming at the expense of desk-based PCs to some extent.

Around mid-2005 we started to see the growth in the replacements that had increased, begin to slow and it'll continue to lessen as we move further into 2006. We expect the average system price to continue to fall and though Q4 unit numbers aren't strong, there remains strong pricing pressure.

In the United States, installed-base saturation is becoming an increasingly significant factor in determining overall commercial market growth rates, ... Saturation is forcing vendors to deliver new types of systems to maintain solid growth rates.

In the first quarter of 2006, emerging markets and consumer demand in the mature regions were the major growth engines on a worldwide basis. Mobile demand remains strong worldwide, but in the U.S. desktop consumer market demand increased in response to renewed price competition.

The industry did better than expected, due in large part to price cuts by vendors and demand for mobile PCs. Mobile growth came to some extent at the expense of desk-based PCs.

The economy is compounding saturation issues in the installed base, ... So I think until we see consumer confidence improve and the general economic situation improve, then we should not expect the upturn.

The downturn in growth is concrete evidence that saturation in key segments is playing an increasingly important role in overall market growth, with new shipments unable to mask the effects of economic cycles on replacement buying,