PC and Netbook Sales Drop

During my Guerrilla classes, I like to make a point of reminding people that it's not enough to just focus on speeds and feeds and examining performance data. It's also important to take time out to check what's happening in the marketplace because current events there can have a huge impact on your performance analysis and capacity plans later on.

Case in point:

Acer, the number-three PC maker in the world, told investors this morning that second-quarter sales will be down 10% from last year. That's more bad news for PC suppliers like Microsoft and Intel.
...
The company has been hammered as netbook sales dried up, replaced in part by Apple's iPad.

[Source: Business Insider]

The news about Netbooks didn't come as a complete surprise to me because I had already decided they were a losing proposition in 2009. The thing to track now is the impact on Intel and Microsoft.