There will be no major surprises in the coming crop of quarterly reports from the PC vendors, according to crop Credit Suisse First Boston analysts. It is raising its projections for overall growth in the number of PCs shipped in 1999 year over 1998 to 19.2% from 16% – from 9% to 11% in dollar value – because of staring demand in Asia, Apple’s resurgence, better price points and the demand from ISPs for PCs to ship as part of bundled internet access services.
The brokerage says that of the bunch Dell and Gateway are the most likely to deliver better earnings than expected. If Compaq can hit even some of the low expectations made for it then the stock should begin to see a resurgence, while the ongoing overhaul of IT infrastructures for IP by the major telecoms carriers should spur Compaq’s Tandem sales along with those of Sun Microsystems and other server vendors, the brokerage believes.
