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Compaq robbery – five per cent of sales lost

Never mind the base units, there go the TFTs

The lorry-load of Compaq notebooks stolen this weekend represented around five per cent of the vendor's anticipated UK quarterly laptop sales. According to IDC, Compaq sold around 21,000 notebooks in Q2, and 31,000 in Q1 this year. Which means the 1,440 base units stolen on Saturday could put a dent in shipping. In all, 810 Compaq Armada 1500Cs and 630 Armada 1750s were nabbed in transit, Cheshire Police said this morning. Andy Brown, IDC analyst, said it would not have a huge effect on Compaq supply. However, he warned that the most serious aspect of the theft involved the TFT screens. These screens are like gold dust at the moment due to an international industry shortage. "The effect on Compaq laptop supply will be noticeable, but depends on how quickly Inventec's production line can recover the loss," said Brown. "Compaq shouldn't suffer too much, but the problem will be in terms of lost time as well as equipment." Brown added that the robbers were probably after finished laptops, and may find the kit difficult to shift. It might look suspicious if someone puts in an order for 1,450 hard drives and keyboards. "These guys obviously thought they were getting the whole machines," he said. Police this morning said there had been no further developments in tracing the three armed hijackers. ® See also: Gunmen grab £1m Compaq machines Compaq admits Inventec makes its notebooks

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