In nine pages this paper applies a Porter's Five Forces model analysis on the computer industry in a consideration of the 'big 3' Dell, Hewlett Packard, and IBM. Twelve sources are listed in the bibliography.
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development has been rapid. This has also been accompanied historically by rapid growth. However, in recent times the demand has been outstripped by capacity of the manufacturing facilities, leading to
a reduction in prices to the consumers. Therefore, although demand may be growing the price received are falling on a per unit basis.
These are characteristics of a industry moving from growth to maturity. The tastes and demand of consumers are also changing. In a recent report the different segments of the computer
industry were assed on a global basis, indicating the relevant trends of increased sales of smaller units, falling market for desktops and almost stagnation for workstations and servers, the same
with mainframes and other components parts remaining static. This performance can be placed into an historical context and the future projections used to demonstrate these trends. Figures given are in
billions of US dollars Table 1; Computer industry trends by segment (Bishop & Associates, 2001). Segment 1999 2000 2001 2005(est.) Palmtops 4
6 7 31 Notebooks 51 57 60 84 Desktops 155 175 165 225 Workstations and servers 34 36 37 54 Mainframes and others 14 14 14 15 Other computers parts
and components 4 4 4 6 The current position has been one of a slowing
down, the newer products such as palmtops have been growing, but older products are reaching maturity. Many purchases are now replacements or additional rather than initial purchases. There is also
a great deal of merger and acquisitions activity, as recently seen with Compaq and Hewlett Packard (Hilson, 2001, Bennett, 2001), are indicators of a maturing industry (Thompson, 1998). Profit margins