14 DAY TRIAL // It was clear enough that the global economy wasn't going to allow for spectacular shipment levels over the holidays, but the whole situation appears to be more dire than presumed.
The 2011 winter holidays may just go by without any visible rise in PC shipments and sales.
In fact, according to rumors, PC makers will be lucky if sales even manage to match those of October.
November already looks like it went by with fewer Windows PC sales than in October, unless final financial tallies say the numbers stayed flat, which would be only a minor consolation.
Taking things even further, PC builders don't think December will be much better either.
Indeed, they actually are concerned that the last month of the ongoing year (2011) will prove to be even less fortunate in this regard.
There was no precise mention of the reasons for this, but they are easy enough to guess and speculate on.
Tablets will obviously get a mention here, since they have been stealing the attention of those who would have otherwise bought a netbook or notebook.
Another problem is the shortage of hard disk drives which, though downplayed, already made its mark, and continues to do so.
With HDDs more expensive, PCs will sell for more, provided their suppliers even get enough of those platter spinners.
A third reason is the Chinese Lunar New Year, a January Holiday: production queuing is normally carried out within the time between the winter holidays and the Chinese one.
On a related note, the PC slowdown is reflected in the decrease of random access memory sales.
Consumers can't really complain about the situation much, because it implies that products are and will continue to sell for less than usual.
One can only wonder just how bad the recession still is if, even with affordable prices, prospective buyers are still so reserved.