Microsoft Surge Proves The PC Isn't Dead

David Callaway MarketWatch April 21, 2012

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April 20, 2012, 4:17 p.m. EDT

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By David Callaway, MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) "” Yahoo and AOL, take note. Sometimes there are second chances in the tech world.

The stunning run in Microsoft Corp. /quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT +4.55% shares this year "” up more than 25% year-to-date and almost 5% on Friday after an upbeat earnings report "” shows that investors can still get excited when the big tech elephants roar. Microsoft had been mired in the elephant's graveyard of tech stocks for much of the past decade, basically keeping pace with a sector still hung over from the Internet bubble of the late 1990s while Apple Inc. /quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL -2.46% and Google Inc. /quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog GOOG -0.54% stole all the sunshine.

But younger investors may not remember that Apple itself is a turnaround story. And while Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may not enjoy the messiah-like reputation that the late Steve Jobs commanded, he knows a thing or two about running a global tech company.

/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT 32.42, +1.41, +4.55%

After Jobs cockily assured the crowd at the All Things D conference in Southern California a few years ago that the introduction of the iPad and tablet technology meant the personal computer was dead, Ballmer issued a bold and mostly-dismissed rebuttal the next day. Arguing in part that tablets were still PCs, just in another form, he cautioned tech enthusiasts against what they always do "” herd toward the latest technology as if nothing else would survive.

Microsoft's earnings on Thursday, while not great, underscored his argument.

Read MarketWatch's Microsoft earnings story and MarketWatch First Take: Microsoft shows there is still life in PCs .

Many analysts have cited expectations for several new product offerings later this year, including a Windows 8 rollout that is supposed to include technology for smartphones and tablets, as the principal driver of the stock this year.

But the action on Friday was also in response to something unexpected in the earnings "” a surge in sales of the company's existing Windows 7 software for PCs. Seems the old PC market isn't so dead after all, which bodes well not only for other PC makers like Hewlett-Packard Co. /quotes/zigman/229301/quotes/nls/hpq HPQ -0.81% and Dell Computer Inc. /quotes/zigman/27952/quotes/nls/dell DELL +0.03% , but for the corporate economy in general.

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This in itself is a big deal for tech investors. Microsoft shares are still not above their 2007 peak before the financial crisis.

And folks may be overly-optimistic about what Windows 8 will accomplish on smartphones and tablets. But if a rise in sales of software for the still-huge PC market could be a harbinger for what could be a much longer cycle of corporate and consumer tech spending that could see the Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/123127 COMP -0.24% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449 DJIA +0.50% push much higher from their already optimistic levels. And Europe be damned.

What this means from the other former tech darlings who have lagged over the past few years, Cisco Systems /quotes/zigman/20039/quotes/nls/csco CSCO +0.03% , Intel Corp. /quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc INTC -0.33% , Yahoo /quotes/zigman/59898/quotes/nls/yhoo YHOO +1.33% and AOL /quotes/zigman/577531/quotes/nls/aol AOL -0.99% , remains to be seen. But at least it shows their managements that indeed hard work and smart strategies can sometimes turn things around. It doesn't have to be all Facebook and Zynga and LinkedIn.

The mood of the tech consumer changes with the breeze. It's easy to forget the old stalwarts who still account for most of the spending on tech components and equipment as we look for more and more creative new apps to cook our meals and do our homework. But Microsoft's surge is a feel-good story not just for embattled tech executives, but for the tech economy as a whole.

/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft Add to portfolio MSFT Microsoft Corp. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 32.42 +1.41 +4.55% Volume: 106.05M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio11.80 Dividend Yield2.47% Market Cap$260.20 billion Rev. per Employee$811,589 var embeddedchart37009960Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart37009960', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:MSFT'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart37009960').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart37009960Chart); /quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl Add to portfolio AAPL Apple Inc. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 572.98 -14.46 -2.46% Volume: 36.82M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio16.36 Dividend YieldN/A Market Cap$547.71 billion Rev. per Employee$2.02M var embeddedchart2053059580Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart2053059580', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:AAPL'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart2053059580').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart2053059580Chart); /quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog Add to portfolio GOOG Google Inc. Cl A US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 596.06 -3.24 -0.54% Volume: 3.06M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio16.49 Dividend YieldN/A Market Cap$194.85 billion Rev. per Employee$1.23M var embeddedchart70767762Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart70767762', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:GOOG'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart70767762').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart70767762Chart); /quotes/zigman/229301/quotes/nls/hpq Add to portfolio HPQ Hewlett-Packard Co. US : U.S.: NYSE $ 24.51 -0.20 -0.81% Volume: 19.65M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio8.25 Dividend Yield1.96% Market Cap$48.86 billion Rev. per Employee$358,939 var embeddedchart124732549Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart124732549', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:HPQ'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart124732549').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart124732549Chart); /quotes/zigman/27952/quotes/nls/dell Add to portfolio DELL Dell Inc. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 16.16 +0.0050 +0.03% Volume: 14.55M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio8.58 Dividend YieldN/A Market Cap$28.47 billion Rev. per Employee$569,077 var embeddedchart1132179241Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart1132179241', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:DELL'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart1132179241').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart1132179241Chart); /quotes/zigman/123127 Add to portfolio COMP NASDAQ Composite Index US : U.S.: Nasdaq 3,000.45 -7.11 -0.24% Volume: 0.00 April 20, 2012 5:30p var embeddedchart1186512883Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart1186512883', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:COMP'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart1186512883').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart1186512883Chart); /quotes/zigman/627449 Add to portfolio DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average US : DJ-Index 13,029.26 +65.16 +0.50% Volume: 212.08M April 20, 2012 4:30p var embeddedchart70394702Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart70394702', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:DJIA'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart70394702').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart70394702Chart); /quotes/zigman/20039/quotes/nls/csco Add to portfolio CSCO Cisco Systems Inc. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 19.91 +0.0050 +0.03% Volume: 34.26M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio15.37 Dividend Yield1.61% Market Cap$107.21 billion Rev. per Employee$624,351 var embeddedchart1623182370Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart1623182370', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:CSCO'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart1623182370').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart1623182370Chart); /quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc Add to portfolio INTC Intel Corp. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 27.60 -0.09 -0.33% Volume: 38.06M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio11.79 Dividend Yield3.04% Market Cap$138.67 billion Rev. per Employee$539,980 var embeddedchart668544352Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart668544352', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:INTC'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart668544352').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart668544352Chart); /quotes/zigman/59898/quotes/nls/yhoo Add to portfolio YHOO Yahoo! Inc. US : U.S.: Nasdaq $ 15.60 +0.21 +1.33% Volume: 24.56M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio17.22 Dividend YieldN/A Market Cap$18.69 billion Rev. per Employee$353,977 var embeddedchart97618243Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart97618243', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:YHOO'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart97618243').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart97618243Chart); /quotes/zigman/577531/quotes/nls/aol Add to portfolio AOL AOL Inc. US : U.S.: NYSE $ 25.00 -0.25 -0.99% Volume: 1.26M April 20, 2012 4:00p P/E Ratio202.27 Dividend YieldN/A Market Cap$2.35 billion Rev. per Employee$389,064 var embeddedchart77677946Chart = new EmbeddedChart('#embeddedchart77677946', NormalChartStyleNoDecimals, 240, 80, '1dy', '5mi', null, null, null, 'US:AOL'); jQuery.data($('#embeddedchart77677946').get(0), 'embeddedchart', embeddedchart77677946Chart); //$(document).ready(function() { var storywidth = $('#mainstory').width(); var maxwidth = storywidth; $('#maincontent pre').each(function (index, value) { var thiswidth = $(value).width(); if (thiswidth > maxwidth) maxwidth = thiswidth; }); var offset = maxwidth - storywidth; if (offset > 0) { var margin = 13; var blanketwidth = $('#blanket').width(); var contentwidth = $('#maincontent').width(); $('#blanket').width(blanketwidth + offset + margin); $('#maincontent').width(contentwidth + offset + margin); $('#mainstory').width(storywidth + offset + margin); } //});

David Callaway is editor-in-chief of MarketWatch.

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David Callaway is editor-in-chief of MarketWatch, responsible for the global news coverage of 100 journalists in 12 bureaus in the U.S., Europe and Asia. A... Expand

David Callaway is editor-in-chief of MarketWatch, responsible for the global news coverage of 100 journalists in 12 bureaus in the U.S., Europe and Asia. A financial journalist for more than 20 years, Callaway has worked for Bloomberg News, the Boston Herald, and assorted television and cable stations as a reporter, columnist and commentator. Collapse

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This in itself is a big deal for tech investors. Microsoft shares are still not above their 2007 peak before the financial crisis.

David Callaway is editor-in-chief of MarketWatch.

U.S. stock gains hinge on Apple, blue-chip results

Are poor people lazy? Or just lucky?

5 stocks market detectives have locked up

Former Goldman trader schools the muppets

IBM and the bane of weak sales growth

Former Goldman trader schools the muppets

Are poor people lazy? Or just lucky?

Revisiting BP's Deepwater Horizon spill

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