PC margins expected to sink further as vendors engage in race to the bottom

PC margins expected to sink further as vendors engage in race to the bottom:
You know the PC industry is in trouble when bearish analysts are criticizing themselves for not being pessimistic enough. StreetInsider points us to new research from Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore, who says that his earlier "relatively bearish estimate" for PC sales in 2013 "is already looking too high." With Dell looking to exit the traditional PC business and go private, Whitmore thinks the company will enact aggressive price cuts that will further erode margins on personal computers and will force vendors to "compete for scale in a structurally declining market." Whitmore thinks this will take a particularly hard toll on HP, which saw its PC shipments decline by more than 23% year-over-year in Q1 2013.