Microsoft downplays PC slowdown talk
Over the last few months there's been a bit of a rise in chatter about the PC possibly coming to its end of days. Microsoft obviously doesn't take that view.
Whether it's the rise of smartphones or the speed at which Apple's iPad has taken off, some believe that the PC as we know it could be over the hill.
During a recent Q-A session at Oppenheimer's Annual Technology, Media - Telecommunications Conference in Boston this week, General Manager of Investor Relations Bill Koefoed downplayed slowdown reports.
"You know, whether or not the market's up or down one month or another, I don't know, there tends to be, since I've had this job, there tends to be a lot of chatter. There's a lot of chatter back in kind of April, May about PC markets for the second quarter.
"I don't know that I would take two guys that go visit some ODM (original design manufacturer) in Taiwan as a reference on what the market looks like. I would gather a lot of information and then decide what you think that it looks like.
Indeed, according to figures from research firm IDC, the global PC market grew 22.4% in the second quarter of 2010.
Do you see the PC going away anytime soon?
