Gateway 2000 still on a roll

For the October-December 1996 fourth quarter, global sales were up 42 per cent on the equivalent quarter for 1995, rising to $1.55 billion. Profits looked even better, up 50 per cent to 88 per cent, and shareholders saw a 119 per cent gain over the course of the year.

Bolstering its reputation as a favourite brand among early adopters, 21 per cent of Gateway desktops were Pentium Pro-based systems.

PCDN Comment: Another terrific set of figures for Gateway; both the South Dakota company and fellow direct seller Dell seem to be in fine fettle and predictions of doom and gloom for mail-order merchants are notably absent these days. However, Gateway still has room for improvement: notebook sales are only 10 per cent of Gateway business, an area the firm plans to address in the near term.