January 5, 2004                                                                                                                               

A HAPPIER NEW YEAR

According to all the analysts and experts 2004 is to be the best year for our industry since 1999.  Remember 1999?  That’s when everyone was scrambling to do their Y2K upgrades.  It was a very good year.  Now all those computers are antiquated and need to be upgraded again.  We should see a similar trend.  Microsoft is predicting a record breaking year for software. 

 We have seen a trend over the past couple of months, more and more upgrades and system replacements.  The talk from everyone we see is that the existing equipment is being replaced.  New equipment purchases are still somewhat low.  This would also be keeping with the analysts’ projections that new hiring is stagnant.  Companies are going to try and increase production without increasing staff.  This is not good news for all those people out of work.

 ATTENTION ALL COLORADO CUSTOMERS:  Your reseller tax license is expired.  We need an updated license from you.  Please fax, mail, email (scanned copy) or bring it in.  I never could figure out why Colorado does things this way.  Many states do not have expiring tax licenses.  Once you have it, it is good forever.  This is obviously another way to take money out of your pocket.  The other thing I can’t understand is why you have them all expire at the same time.  It seems like this would create a lot of work for state employees that could be spread out over the year.  Bureaucracy at its finest!

 CHANGES WE EXPECT TO SEE THIS YEAR:  There are several items that will be phased out if they are not already.  All 60GB hard drives are already gone.  I don’t know why 40GB is still around but it should last too much longer.  The price difference between a 40 and 80 is currently only about $9.  PC100 and PC133 memory has taken a jump in price.  We don’t expect to see it around much longer either.  We are no longer stocking it.  It will be special order only from now on.  We will stock DDR266, DDR333, DDR400 in 256MB and 512MB.  128MB and 1GB will be available on a next day basis.  Windows 98 is now dead and gone. 

 As most of you already know, the typical production run for a motherboard is about 6 months.  They last in the market for usually 9 to 12 months.  It is always best to buy the most current board for two reasons.  Generally you will get the upgrade path for a higher speed processor.  Also, if you have problems with it, RMA will take a shorter amount of time. 

 WHAT IS CHANGING AT S&K:  We are going to have more “specials”.  We will try to blend these with new and older products.  Keep an eye on the website and emails.  Currently we have reduced the price of CPU’s due to the low RMA rate.  Ever since we switched to selling retail box CPU’s only, our RMA rate has been almost 0%.  Keep an eye out as we expect to be reducing prices on other items as well.

 S&K