“After the end of the third quarter, one tech titan after another bemoaned a ‘lack of visibility’ into the year-end period. As the U.S. financial crisis worsened in September, it was apparent the rest of the year would be rough, but most companies could scarcely tell how bad things would get,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“The industry is getting all too clear a picture now. The most recent indication came Nov. 12, when Intel (INTC) slashed its fourth-quarter sales forecast, citing ‘significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments.’ Intel said it now expects sales of $8.7 billion to $9.3 billion, down from a prior forecast of $10.1 billion to $10.9 billion,” Hesseldahl reports.
“As the world’s largest maker of computer chips, Intel is considered a bellwether for the wider industry. Its warning represents an uncharacteristically dour outlook for the crucial fourth quarter, when tech companies depend on consumers making yearend holiday gift purchases and companies draining annual IT budgets. ‘For all intents and purposes, the PC market is just dead,’ says Edwin Mok, an analyst at Needham & Co. in San Francisco,” Hesseldahl reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
