There were signs at the end of last year that the US mainframe and mid-range computer market, which has been consistently soggy for three or four years now was starting to recover, but in its conference call with analysts after its figures came out on Friday, showing a stark 17% plunge in outright sales, the company said that Europe, where the UK is in recession, Italy and France are on the brink of it, and Germany is slowing down, was its best market and the US its worst: the company admitted that it may be losing market share in personal computers but point out that the period did not include its no compromises laptop; it also said that the RS/6000, while performing well, failed to meet IBM targets.
