A Fool Looks Back

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

We had the fortune -- or, bulls would argue, misfortune -- of having Dell (Nasdaq: DELL  ) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: 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 (Nasdaq: 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 (Nasdaq: 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 (Nasdaq: 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.