Despite the high-profile casualties listed alongside, there seems to be no consistent trend, and while the festive season was not great, it was not bad either. Escom AG’s apocalyptic warning about its experience of the German market in the fourth quarter had observers rushing to write off Germany as a major contributor, but now it appears that Escom’s problems may have had more to do with Escom than with the market. Compaq Computer Corp said on Friday that on the contrary, there were no signs of a slowdown in the European computer market and that the company had strong sales in the fourth quarter. (European) sales in November alone were as much as the whole first quarter, said Toon Bouten, head of Compaq’s European consumer products division, in a telephone interview with Reuter, adding that Escom’s problems could simply mean that consumers were changing preferences, rather than being a sign the market was weakening. We are going through a completely different experience. There is really strong demand. It could be that people are moving towards name brands and away from retailers, he said. And in Las Vegas, Compaq chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer said he expected demand for personal computers to continue to grow at a healthy rate this year, believing 20% growth is possible.And Irving, Texas-based market researcher ARS Inc says US computer retailers reported that personal computer sales for the month of December met or exceeded expectations, with 83% of the sales and management personnel surveyed at over 60 computer retailers in major metropolitan areas saying that sales were as good or better than they expected.
