Microsoft speaks, market says So what?

Posted by Forexsq 134 days ago (http://www.marketwatch.com)

It’s been an interesting week for Microsoft Corp., and even having “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest as co-ringleader during Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show might not have been the most noteworthy event featuring the No. 1 software company.

Most remarkable would be what a couple of Microsoft MSFT +0.11% executives had to say about the outlook for PC shipments this year.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion at CES, Tami Reller, Microsoft’s chief financial officer and head of marketing for Windows and the company’s Windows Live Division, said PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2011 would likely show a greater decline than expected. Another Microsoft exec had made similar comments at another conference.

The cause of the shortfall continues to be the lingering effects of last year’s flooding in Thailand, where nearly half of the world’s computer hard-disk drives are made. After the market closed Wednesday, Gartner Inc. said that PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2011 declined by 1.4% from the year ago period, to 92.2 million units. Gartner had earlier forecast a decline of 1%.