So even if we have a very strong season for Internet sales, it doesn't necessarily signal a strong holiday season .

This year has been very strong for the e-commerce industry. Every indicator in this space, from online sales, broadband growth and domain registration is up. It's not surprising that individuals, small businesses and even the bigger brick-and-mortar retailers who didn't have an online presence before now have a Web site.

The Internet is gradually becoming more of a standard way to shop. It's convenient to use, especially as people are more confident now of using their credit cards online. Web vendors are giving customers what they want like free shipping or the option to order online and pick up the goods at the store.

Holiday sales have become a vital component of the retail sales cycle for millions of small businesses. Overall, we found 51 percent of U.S. small business owners believe Valentine's Day sales are important to their business and are optimistic that sales will be rosy this year.

This is very much a good sign for holiday PC sales.

We were obviously disappointed by sales for this holiday season, particularly because we had been outperforming the retail sector as a whole for the previous nine months,