Microsoft Corp's new Windows XP software hasn't yet boosted personal computer sales, and demand may continue to lag for several months after the terrorist attacks in the US, executives said.
"It certainly hasn't had a huge pop in PC sales," Carly Fiorina, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co, said in an interview this week. "Before Sept. 11, we had been talking about a more subdued back-to-school season and I think that's clearly the case now."
Earlier this year, investors had said Windows XP, which Microsoft has called its most important operating system since Windows 95, probably would bolster PC sales. Analysts have been steadily reducing sales estimates, particularly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Microsoft is officially introducing the program on Oct. 25, when it will be available in stores. PC makers began shipping computers with the new system as early as Sept. 24.
With H-P and many PC makers just finishing up their first week of sales for XP-based machines, it's too soon to tell how demand will play out in coming months. Still, investors said they aren't expecting Windows XP to increase sales this quarter.
"Unlike previous versions, the uptick will be a little bit slower but it will be very steady," said Sunil Reddy, a fund manager at Fifth Third Bancorp, which owns 155,000 Dell shares. "I expect momentum to pick up in the next few quarters. In the next two or three years, the majority of PCs will be upgraded to XP."
When Microsoft introduced Windows 95 in August 1995, it created a sensation and PC makers saw their unit shipments increase 26 percent from the previous quarter, according to IDC.
Windows XP crashes less, adds digital photography and music features and is easier to use, representatives from Microsoft have said recently.
Before the attacks, XP was expected to boost PC sales in the fourth quarter, said Bruce Raabe, chief investment officer at Collins & Co, which owns shares of Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Intel Corp and International Business Machines Corp.
"Now we might have to push that back a quarter or two," he said. "There's a big question mark as far as demand. This disaster caught everybody off guard. It's not just PC sales, but all consumer products." PC sales fell in the second quarter from a year earlier, the first such decline since 1986. Analysts expect sales to fall further because consumers and corporations aren't buying as much because of the attacks.
Since Sept. 11, Intel, the largest provider of microprocessors, has fallen 19 percent.
Microsoft has declined 2.3 percent and Dell Computer Corp has slipped 8.5 percent. Yesterday, Microsoft rose US$3.18, or 6 percent, to US$56.23, while Dell increased US$2.10, or 11 percent, to US$20.64 and Intel was up US$1.69, or 8.7 percent to US$21.23.
Michael Dell, chief executive of Dell, has said in May that he expects a rebound in PC sales in the second quarter next year, helped by Windows XP and corporations upgrading their PCs. He hasn't changed that forecast, said Dell spokesman Mike Maher.
"The general sense is that we still believe XP in addition or coupled with P4 [Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessors] replacement cycles will be a catalyst for demand," Maher said.
Fiorina said XP will have an impact on PC sales in the holiday shopping season.
"It gets innovation, new applications and excitement back into the category and that's important," Fiorina said during an interview.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft declined to comment on Window XP sales, said Katy Fonner, of the software maker's public-relations agency, Waggener Edstrom. She said Microsoft will discuss Windows XP revenue when the company reports fiscal first-quarter earnings on Oct. 18.
Spokespeople for Compaq Computer Corp and Gateway Inc said they couldn't talk about Windows XP because their quarters closed Sept. 30 and they are in a self-imposed "quiet period."
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS