“Dell’s disappointing quarter is much bigger than just its weak enterprise, Jim Cramer said Wednesday on CNBC’s ‘Mad Money.’ It marks the end of an era — what Cramer calls the ‘great secular decline’ of the personal computer, laptop and netbook,” Kirsten Chang reports for CNBC.

“After Tuesday’s close, Dell reported earnings and revenue that fell far below analyst expectations, prompting its stock to fall sharply. Some blame the poor results on Dell’s management, but Cramer thinks the real problem lies within the shrinking consumer demand for personal computers across the board. Netbooks were down a ‘staggering’ 15 percent, he noted,” Chang reports. “‘Why have a desktop, a laptop and a phone when Apple’s mobile devices make owning a laptop redundant?’ Cramer said. ‘That’s the reason why notebooks and netbooks seem to be going the way of the typewriter.’ Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad products are ‘just lethal for the Dell product line,’ he said.”

Chang reports, “‘When the smoke clears off this miserable Dell quarter, people will realize that Apple’s behind the destruction of the laptop,’ Cramer said. ‘And with that destruction comes a world of hurt for just about everyone, save Apple.’”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Meanwhile, Mac sales have outpaced the PC industry as a whole for 24 consecutive quarters and counting.

As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Tayster" for the heads up.]