Getting a bit non-PC
Few resellers will admit to selling PCs anymore, but they remain the lifeblood of our industry
The numbers are almost in and the counting is nearly finished. Soon we'll have some kind of idea exactly what went on last year, and whether the 'cautious optimism' we heard so much about erred more on the side of caution or optimism.
Signs from over the pond suggest that the channel is showing more promise than it has for five years. It is said that when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold; perhaps now it is finally handing around the Lemsips.
One set of numbers that always makes intriguing reading is the PC sales figures, so a lot was expected when Context last week gave an early view of how Europe fared in the fourth quarter of last year.
But, as the analyst rightly pointed out, we must take into consideration other activities in the PC market: the IBM/Lenovo affair, Hewlett-Packard and Dell battling for market share, Intel and AMD pushing hard into notebooks, and the commoditisation of the past few years.
More interesting than the actual figures for PC sales through the channel (which showed growth of just six per cent, half of 2003's rate) is the fact that PC seems to have become a dirty word.
All of the resellers I spoke to regarding PC sales and shipments for last year were not keen to chat about it. One even whispered conspiratorially to me that PCs were in fact still his highest-grossing product - but obviously don't tell anyone. What gives?
With the focus in the channel being steered towards services, no one really wants to admit that they still actually sell PCs. It appears to have become something to be ashamed of - a sign that a business has not moved into the brave new world of services. Yet, in reality, PCs are still the lifeblood of our industry.
Most resellers still use the sale of PCs, whether desktops or notebooks, to piggy-back other sales, services and additional margin opportunities.
PCs remain the sales hook for resellers, which continue to rely heavily on the refresh cycles, upgrades, peripherals, software and networking that all accompany said 'grubby' PC. Why don't we just admit it?