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  3. Who to believe? Nokia or Ericsson? IBM or Sun Microsystems? Microsoft or Siebel? Rarely have the fortunes of technology companie

Who to believe? Nokia or Ericsson? IBM or Sun Microsystems? Microsoft or Siebel? Rarely have the fortunes of technology companie

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问题     Who to believe? Nokia or Ericsson? IBM or Sun Microsystems? Microsoft or Siebel? Rarely have the fortunes of technology companies appeared to differ so widely. Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, this week reported better-than-expected sales for the latest quarter, holding out the prospect that its market share would soon reach new highs. By contrast, Ericsson, a rival, was full of gloom. Reporting bigger losses than expected, the company said that sales of its mobile phones were likely to tumble by 20% this year.
    Motorola, another maker of mobile phones, is in a similar boat. On October 15th, the company reported a return to profit in its most recent period after a run of losses, but lowered its forecasts for the rest of the year and for 2003. Demand in wireless, broadband and semiconductors continued to slow, said the company. Unimpressed, investors marked down Motorola’s shares to a ten-year low.
    The pattern of haves and have-nots is repeated in software too. While Microsoft was in chipper mood this week—revelling in a 26% increase in sales and a doubling of its profits after tax for the quarter to the end of September—Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft, two of America’s leading suppliers of business software, were down in the dumps. While PeopleSoft managed a modest profit, Siebel reported a loss for the last quarter and said it expected the present quarter to be equally tough. Despite (or because of) their contrasting fortunes, Microsoft and Siebel announced a joint marketing deal on October 21st: Microsoft is to sell Siebel’s customer-manage-merit software through . NET, its web-services product.
    Why are some companies doing better than others? One reason is that, now more than ever, those that are competitive seem to be punishing those that are not. Nokia has stretched its lead over Ericsson which, in addition to lower sales of mobile phones, has suffered from the severe fall in demand for telecoms infrastructure, its biggest business. There was, however, some good news for Ericsson’s shares on October 18th, when the company said that the infrastructure unit came close to breaking even in the most recent quarter.
    Cost-cutting has also helped SAP, Europe’s largest developer of business software, has reduced its expenses by 8%. As a result, its margins have improved a lot compared with those of its competitors. Microsoft has employed different tactics. It has capitalized on customers’ fears that the cost of upgrading their software, such as the company’s Windows XP operating system, could climb. Many have rushed to buy now in case prices rise. In tune with the times, Microsoft is also keen to demonstrate how its products can save its customers money. Understandably, this is winning its sales.
What is the best title for the passage?
选项 A、Technology Giants in Trouble.
B、World IT Market.
C、A New Gulf in IT Industry.
D、Technology Companies.
答案C
解析 主旨题。文章开头就提出全文的主题：科技公司的财富在以前似乎很少会产生这么大的差距。文章中给出多个例子说明现在科技公司有的在盈利，而有的在亏损，其财富产生悬殊差距，并以haves and have-nots(富人和穷人)来形容这两种公司。然后又分析了其中的部分原因。由此可见C“信息技术业内的一个新差距”符合这个意思，适合做文章标题。A是片面的，因为文章中不只是讲处于困境的公司，还涉及许多发达盈利的公司；B“世界IT市场”不是本文的中心内容，因为本文不是讲IT市场的情况，而是讲IT公司的状况；D“科技公司”这个标题太笼统，故也不合适。
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