HP & Compaq Now that the technology industry has collapsed, it's clear to anyone that the PC is an entirely commodity product. Dell, the low cost leader, is grinding away the competition through a price war it's uniquely positioned to win. So HP and Compaq's merger, although an act of weakness, may give OEMs the muscle they need to work on commoditizing away other complementary goods (like operating systems).

(Winterspeak will be on hiatus until next week. Am going on a retreat).