Issaquah, Washington-based software retailer Egghead Inc warns that earnings for its fiscal first quarter to July 18, will likely be lower than analysts’ expectations of $0.18 to $0.36 per share: sales for the quarter were up 9% at $202m with both retail and corporate and government sales falling short of its expectations, with a higher proportion of sales in lower-priced products; significantly, the company says that an MS-DOS 5.0 promotion in the first fiscal quarter of 1991 was far more successful than the Windows 3.1 promotion last quarter, and retail sales of Windows 3.1 were less than 40% of the $18m of MS-DOS 5 sold at retail during first quarter last year; retail sales of Windows 3.1 for existing machines were also lower than expected, which suggests that to the extent Microsoft Corp is doing well with 3.1 it is in sales where it is bundled with the box.
