On The Runway Like the fashion world's avant-garde clothing, new concept PCs using Intel's latest technologies offer a sneak peak at what's to come.

It's the holidays, the season when makers and resellers ofchips and PCs have visions of sugar plums and margin-savingshopping sprees dancing in their heads. This is the quarter thatmakes or breaks the year for many of them-and it's almostalways a good time to be shopping for a new PC, or maybe even 10 ofthem.

This year, your shopping trip is likely to be more satisfyingthan it's been in years past, thanks to several trends just nowcoming together. A softening U.S./world economy, especially inEurope, has hurt PC sellers' top lines, while higher energycosts and interest rates will jack up shipping and inventoryfinancing costs, prompting PC sellers to "move iron."

The end of the year is always a time of inventory disgorgementand deep discounting on old lines to make room for new models. Butthis year, PC product sellers have to push both new and oldequipment into markets with much softer-than-expected demand. Thegrowth in world PC sales is flattening out, says an IDC report.