A Fool Looks Back

Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool
Updated

Is it safe to say that PCs don't matter anymore?

We had the fortune -- or, bulls would argue, misfortune -- of having Dell (NAS: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYS: HPQ) post quarterly results on back-to-back days. The market didn't warm up to either report, but the real shocker comes in the form of double-digit percentage declines in their PC sales. Dell checked in with a 14% decline in PC revenue on Tuesday, and HP followed with a 10% drop a day later.

We can't blame the iffy global economy, because tablets and smartphones are selling just fine. There's a real shift in the way casual consumers approach computing, and right now they're saying you don't need a desktop or a bulky laptop if all you want to do is surf the Web, stream videos, and fire off e-mails.


Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) is lowering the price of its Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 consoles by 27% to $109.99. Pair that up with the surprisingly low Windows 8 upgrade price, and Mr. Softy seems to be the champion of deflationary pressure. Game on!

  • Facebook (NAS: FB) shares slipped to an all-time low -- even though we're only talking about a three-month trading history -- after lockup restrictions began to expire, freeing some early investors to flood the market with their shares.

  • Netflix (NAS: NFLX) has surpassed a million subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland. That's a far cry from its nearly 24 million domestic streaming customers -- and 26.5 million total stateside accounts -- but it's an impressive start for an overseas service that was launched just seven months ago.

Moving on
A new premium report on Netflix details the opportunities and challenges in store for its shareholders. The report includes a full year of updates, so time's ticking. Check it out now.

The article A Fool Looks Back originally appeared on Fool.com.

The Motley Fool owns shares of Netflix, Facebook, and Microsoft.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook and creating a synthetic covered call position in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.Longtime Fool contributorRick Munarrizcalls them as he sees them. He owns shares of Netflix and is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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