Q3-sales: an austere winter?
Early figures just in from Context (www.context1.com), the IT market research firm, suggest that PC manufacturers have had their fears of a poor third quarter realised, as third quarter sales of PC's only grew by half of that predicted by many experts and analysts.
Sales of PC's to business users in France, Germany and the UK grew by just 9.5 per cent in unit terms from a year earlier says Context, which notes that the results confirm recent warnings issued by Dell and Intel.
Perhaps mindful of this, IBM (www.ibm.com) has just revamped its diverse server line under the eServer banner as part of a drive to bring high-end features into its mid-range products, while simplifying its server sales and support structure.
The move sees the S/390, AS/400, RS/6000 and Netfinity brands and brought under the eServer banner, with S/390 renamed the eServer zSeries and AS/400 becoming the eServer iSeries.
The RS/6000 machines, meanwhile, will become the eServer pSeries; while Netfinity will become eServer xSeries.
The first new server carrying the eServer brand is an upgrade to IBM's mainframe computer called the eServer zSeries 900. This will see the debut of the new z/OS 64-bit operating system, as well as a software pricing model based on capacity used rather than total system capacity.
Commenting on the changes, Stephen Murdoch, IBM's vice president of enterprise servers, said that customers see a segmentation of the market based on operating systems as irrelevant.
"What they want is system level availability that covers more than just individual components," he explained, adding that reseller arrangements are unaffected by the changes.
From a reseller perspective, the changes look good, since they simplify the number of sections in the IBM catalogue. It remains to be seen, however, how much IBM's VAR's will see their products being stocked by the more box-shifter end of the market.
This is a potentially worrying trend. Not only are sales starting to tail off, but even IBM is simplfying its ranges. This could be a austere Winter for the reseller channel.
Jungle.com extends its services
Fresh from its recent acquisition by Great Universal Stores, Jungle.com, the former Web sales spinoff from Software Warehouse, has notched up another first with the launch of its online criteria based Web application service, PAW - Product Advisor Wizard.
PAW aims to provide totally independent and impartial advice to consumers looking to purchase a computer.
Through answering a series of fact based questions, the firm claims that PAW is able to narrow the vast selection of computers on the jungle.com Web site down to those which best meet the consumer's individual needs.
According to Steve Bennett, Jungle.com's chief executive, the days of the traditional salesman are now gone, since PAW gives consumers the power to make their own choices and select the product that best meets their needs without any sales pressure.
"It's difficult for the salesperson to be completely impartial," he explained, adding that they will tend to recommend the products that they are most familiar with and may judge the needs of the consumer based on their own preconceptions.
PAW, on the other hand, he said, caters for different levels of buyers - beginner, intermediate and advanced. Consumers looking to buy a PC who state that they are beginners, are lead through a series of interactive questions to ascertain in non-technical terms, what the PC is to be used for.
Buyers who are more technical, meanwhile, can use PAW to find PC's with certain specifications. Once PAW has found products to match the consumer's needs it lists them in price ascending order in an easy to read and compare matrix.
According to Bennett, computers are just the start, as Jungle.com plans to extend its PAW technology to mobile phones, laptops, handheld and home cinema next, closely followed by printers, scanners and cameras.
The service will soon also feature video clips of products and the ability for the consumer to interact with a salesperson at the same time as looking at the PAW information on the screen.
1-2-1 Euro Technology opens Web site
1-2-1 Euro Technology has just completed an upgrade of its Web site to offer its complete product range online, including PocketPC and Palm handheld devices, PCMCIA cards and remote access products.
The move is an unusual one for a standard reseller, but, according to Jane Dennis, the firm's sales and marketing director, the move is simply part of the company's long-term expansion plans. "Our research has shown that many potential and existing customers already use the Web site as an information resource when considering whether and what future purchases to make," she explained.
PST warns for PC inventory problem
European PC vendors are facing a growing problem with excess inventory and will need to take decisive action to avoid a serious fall in profits and the risk of a poor fourth quarter, according to leading inventory management specialist PST.
PST says that weaker PC sales in the European market were given as one of the reasons behind Intel's third quarter revenue warning in early October.
The recent deterioration of the euro has led to a 15 to 20 per cent increase in the cost of PC's for European consumers, depressing the market and having a knock-on effect on Intel.
According to PST, with no sign of any recovery in the euro, the outlook for European PC sales is poor. Vendors, the firm predicts, will have to act swiftly to avoid being caught with excess stocks of ageing machines ahead of the fourth quarter and the expected boom in retail sales ahead of Christmas.
John Broderick, PST Internet CEO, said that manufacturers inventories of PC's are rising in Europe and, as a result, he believes this problem will remain with us for some time.
"It's more important than ever that vendors take a responsible approach to inventory management and start to plan ahead. If they do not the consequences for some could be very serious indeed," he warned, Broderick went on to say that PST's new Web-based service is a useful method of keeping the market and stocks moving. The new service, he said, is now available to a select group of buyers over the Web enabling both buyer and seller to optimise the value of the transaction.
Context, http://www.context1.com;
IBM, http://www.ibm.com;
Jungel.com, http://www.jungle.com;
1-2-1 Euro Technology, 0044-1483-595121 (GB), http://www.121eurotech.com;
PST, 0044-1628-782233 (GB), http://www.pst.co.uk