Holiday Season May Not Be Joyous for PC Makers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)—Computers may be the last thing left on the shelves this holiday season as the delayed release of Microsoft's Vista operating system, laptop battery recalls and other challenges dent U.S. sales, analysts said.

Personal computer makers, such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., usually count on the year-end consumer spending spree to boost revenue, but this year, a number of factors are combining to dampen the holiday cheer.

Declining U.S. home prices and slowing economic growth are tightening purse strings just as PC makers hope consumers will spend more for advanced processors, memory, monitors and disk drives to take advantage of new features in Vista, set for release in January, analysts said.

A worldwide recall of nearly 10 million battery cells used in notebook PCs sold by Dell, Apple Computer Inc., Toshiba Corp. and others has led to shortages and potential shipment delays. The battery cells, made by Sony Corp., were at risk of overheating.
Read more...