Stefan Mileschin

Software megalith Microsoft has been consulting the augers and is warning that the liver on its sacrificial lamb is not up to scratch.

As a result, it is seeing a great undoing and a fall of profits in its Windows decision. It seems that the Gods have turned their back on the mighty Vole and cursed the industry with falling PC sales.

Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows unit, told the Guardian that analysts' expectations that the PC market had shrunk by a percent were too optimistic and there was nothing but doom to beware of.

To make matters worse, as we reported, Gartner's tarot card readers and IDC's gazers at crystal balls are also predicting things to be much worse in 2012.

Some of that will be the result of hard-drive shortages thanks to the floods in Thailand, but mostly it will be the economic crisis in Europe and the US. Of course there will also be the end of the world to look forward to again in December.

But what is worrying analysts is that Windows 8 and Ultrabooks, which are supposed to give the industry a kick start this year, might not impress consumers in such an economic climate. Punters are less likely to choose a new computer when there are more important things to buy out there, such as food.

Apple is saying the opposite of course. It told its analysts to expect bumper revenues from the fourth quarter, driven by strong sales of its iPhone and iPad over Christmas. However, Apple has not made any gains into the PC market, but much like it did with the iPod, copied another technology, marketed it as something new and set its own rules. Intel is trying a similar trick with the Ultrabook.

http://news.techeye.net/software/mic...12-profit-loss