Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, at this time if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. Please un-mute your phone and record your name clearly when prompted. Again, press star one if you have a question. Our first question comes from Brent Bracelin, Pacific Crest, your line is open.
Brent Bracelin – Pacific Crest
Thank you, Joe, really wanted to ask first question around, Dell obviously, you had a very strong quarter but the Dell contribution did decline sequentially for the first time during what is seasonally a strong quarter and was flat year over year. Why did you see the Dell contribution trend down and how should we think about that Dell contribution in 2008?
Joe Tucci
Brent, the real guts of the partnership we have with Dell, which we’ve extended and is a very important partnership through 2011 is based on the Clariion product family. And as you can see that was still approximately one-third of our revenue. We did consciously and Dell consciously, there are some other products that Dell used to sell where their margin profiles were lower and as they change their business model they would say less emphasis on products like Symmetrix, so in the core areas that we’re partnering on, we’re still very pleased and it’s still a very strategic relationship for us.
Operator
Our next question is from Keith Bachman, Bank of Montreal, your line is open.
Keith Bachman – Bank of Montreal
Hi guys, thank you, Joe I was just hoping you could talk a little bit about the cadence of orders relative to the macro backdrop and how you see the pipeline against traditional seasonal trends in the March quarter. Thanks.
Joe Tucci
Keith, let me do it this way, I mean obviously we are stating in several different ways that this market is more uncertain. We’re being very clear that we think there absolutely is going to be IT spending growth in 2008, however it will be a couple points less we believe right now than it was in 2007. Today we haven’t seen much negativity happen in the market but obviously I think it’s prudent upon us to be cautious and it was some caution in our guidance and as we gave the guidance we’re factoring all the strength that we have in the underlying company and the relative unknown in the market and doing the best we can to give you a [unintelligible] but you know today we have not seen much on a downside to tell you the truth but again as we go forward I think being cautious is the order of the day.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
