(December 4) – “Michael Dell just came out and said it,” writes Andrew Sorkin in today’s New York Times.

” ‘There haven’t been a lot of great reasons to buy a new computer,’ Mr. Dell, the chairman of the Dell Computer Corporation told a group of investors here this week.”

“Jeffrey Weitzen, president and chief executive of one of Dell’s rivals, Gateway, put it another way, the day after his company shocked the market with news that sales and profits would fall far below forecasts.”

” ‘Do you really need a gigahertz processor?’ Mr. Weitzen said during an interview here.”

” ‘We’re finding people don’t need that. The drive for speed is no longer what it once was.’ “

“Neither is the drive for online retailing, said Shelby Bonnie, chief executive of the technology news service, CNet Network. ‘People have way oversold the e-tailing space.’ “

“The doomsday declarations were uttered at the annual technology conference sponsored by the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston, which seemed to be ground zero this week for the implosion of investor confidence in the information technology sector.”

“The conference’s organizer, Elliott Rogers, managing director and head of the company’s technology research group, said as much: ‘Suspicions of problems have been confirmed. It’s like getting hit by a 2 by 4.’ “

“The conference, a weeklong open-microphone session for chief executives of technology companies, coincided with a particularly heavy pummeling of the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index, which fell nearly 9 percent this week. And the 2,000 or so investors here seemed to divide their attention between the Nasdaq and the 200 technology chiefs who found themselves here not to praise their companies but mainly to explain themselves.”