Another Ill-Informed Journalist Says Dell Is The Only Profitable PC Company

October 9th, 2001 at 3:00 PM - Apple Stock Watch by Bryan Chaffin

We missed this in the excitement of last weekis Mac OS X 10.1 release, but Observer Nick McGhie was a tad more observant. An article about Dellis financial fortunes last week once again dissed Apple. Dell met with analysts last week in an attempt to explain how falling profits and gross margins were a good thing in the face of slowing PC sales across the industry. Analysts ate it up, and in an AP article, Dell was said to be the only company making profits from the sale of PCs. The fact that Apple is also profiting from the sale of PCs apparently didnit matter. From that article:

Dell has not given a formal forecast for either the third or fourth quarters, but [Dell vice president Kevin] Rollins said in an interview with The Associated Press that Dell could get a boost from strong computer sales to government in the third quarter, typically a government-driven quarter.

The company replaced 10,000 computer systems just in the first two days after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Centers, Rollins said.

Dell plans to continue slashing prices to gain market share even though it has hurt profits. Dell is the only company making money on PC sales.

In late August, a BusinessWeek article also made the mistake of saying that Dell was the only profitable PC company. That article was corrected to say that Dell was the only profitable company besides Apple to profit after The Mac Observer reported the slight. You can read more about Dellis guidance in the full AP article:

Thanks to Observer Nick McGhie for alerting us to the AP article.