It's clearly negative for Microsoft and the PC market as a whole. It will hurt sales and adds uncertainty to the market.

Industry sales have held up better than expected despite a backdrop of economic uncertainty, and we think this trend will characterize all of 2001.

We recognize that uncertainty regarding Palm's future pricing creates uncertainly for Handspring's near-term sales and margin outlook, and to the extent that we need to respond, we will.

The uncertainty is petrol prices,

We demand guaranteed rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.

As has been widely discussed, February sales were likely hurt by a record- breaking snowstorm that hit in the middle of the month and by unusually-warm weather in January, which likely pulled some early-spring sales forward.