PC Connection and Motorola released quarterly earnings today both reflect troublesome trends within PC and handset markets as well as hope for the future.
Indeed, netbooks are not saviors for giant direct sales companies like PC Connections. Its notebook and PDA sales were off by 26% in the first quarter with average selling price taking a hit from “competitive pricing pressure” and “netbooks.” I have a call into CFO Steve Bainbridge to get some details on just how steep the decline in ASP which is good news for buyers.
Interestingly, I searched PC Connections’ netbook page by most popular models. Number one was Lenovo’s Ideapad S10e model 41872NU with three stars from two user reviews. Second was the Acer Aspire One 150-1447 with 48 reviews and five stars. How does the number one most popular model only get two mediocre user reviews and number two model get 48 glowing assessments? It makes you wonder about user reviews and whose writing them.
I recall that at one magazine where I worked that invited reader feedback in annual product excellence contests, it was assumed that at some companies, droves of employees would vote glowingly early and often for their own products. That’s why I am a big fan of reviews by indepedent journalists. PC Connection reported that sales in the first quarter dropped 23% over the same quarter in 2008 to $326.2, but the company managed to weather the downturn with a relatively small net loss of $1.6 million.
Meanwhile, Motorola reported a steep drop in handset sales with dollar volume off 45 per cent from the year ago quarter, but the interesting news is that it plans to introduce several new Android-based handsets for the Christmas selling season which begins early in the fourth quarter. “We plan to have differentiated Android-based devices in stores in time for the fourth-quarter holiday season,” said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Mobile Devices.
Android is a highly customizable operating system based on Linux that promises to break down boundaries between applications so they appear more integrated and cohesive. Stay tuned for some reviews.
