Commenting on its figures – see this page, DEC says that the 17% decline in first quarter profits matched investment community expectations as the company continues to outpace industry growth – turnover grew 16%. DEC says that customer demand outside the US continues very strong, particularly in Europe, Japan, and several other Far East markets. In the quarter, non-US revenues accounted for a striking 53% of the total, the highest percentage in history. Demand in the US however continues below that experienced overseas, as it has for several quarters. Sales of low-end and mid-range systems were strong but sales of high-end systems were below expectations, and this resulted in lower profit than in the comparable quarter a year ago. Net employment levels were essentially flat with the previous quarter. Desktop computing, high end systems and transaction processing are areas in which the company is investing heavily. Last year we shipped 30,000 workstation products in support of network application services, and in the quarter just ended we shipped 12,000 units, putting DEC in the number two position in workstations, it said.
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