“Apple is relatively unscathed by the recent Thailand flooding which threw for a loop PC makers more dependent on hard drives,” Ed Sutherland reports for Cult of Mac.
“Intel stock dropped 4.8 percent earlier this week on word sales by the giant chipmaker would be down until at least through the first quarter of the 2012 financial year. PC makers have been rushing to buy up scarce hard drive supplies after the July Thailand flooding,” Sutherland reports. “Thailand is the No. 2 global producer of hard drives.”
Sutherland reports, “‘We think Apple will be the least impacted … if at all, given its ability to sell MacBook Airs and iPads,’ Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes noted Tuesday night. PC sales in the fourth quarter are forecast to grow by only 4 percent, with 3.6 percent annual growth predicted for the first quarter of fiscal 2012.”
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