Personal computer manufacturers are queueing to issue bad news, and the latest is AST Research Inc, Irvine, which says that it expects a fiscal second quarter loss of $7m to $9m on sales of about $110m. It says that among measures under consideration to improve its position is sale of its Camintonn business, which manufactures add-on memory and multifunction systems for DEC minicomputers. The belief is now widespread that the second and third line manufacturers of personal computers are in for a very lean time in 1989, with the weakest going to the wall as the market for even the sexier high-end 80386-based begins to suffer from oversupply. Already, Intel Corp is saying that its customers have excess inventory of 80386 parts and have scaled back their orders, and Advanced Micro Devices, making fast 80286s is also seeing a slowdown.
