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,

Our record third-quarter retail earnings were fueled by industry-leading comparable-store sales and illustrate our ability to execute in this market sector,

The good news is that sales for January seem to be right on track with our previous forecast of 4 percent -- not enough to make up for the holiday shortfall, but a good sign nonetheless,

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've had very strong sales recently, and we have our fingers crossed for the holiday season.