HP CEO: Windows PCs are like 'stale fish'

Thanks to Microsoft's relentless push with its free upgrade, Windows 10 software is now running on over 200 million devices.

Unfortunately, the new Windows 10 operating system hasn't yet made a lot of people want to go out and buy new Windows 10 PCs.

So says Dion Weisler, the CEO of HP, the largest PC maker. After reporting HP's fiscal first quarter results on Wednesday, Weisler was asked during the quarterly conference call about declining PC sales. HP's PC unit sales were down 13% over the year-ago quarter, and revenue was down 13%.

Weisler pointed the finger at Windows 10, saying.

"We have not yet seen the anticipated Windows 10 stimulation of demand that we would have hoped for, and we're carefully monitoring any sort of price developments that could further weaken demand."

He then explained that PCs that no one buys are like rotting fish.

"I do refer to the whole PC business as a fish business. It's great when it's fresh; it makes you sick when it's off. ... what happens in the fish business is those that have a lot of stale fish, it's very expensive, and those that have fresh fish tend to do better."

What he means is that when old models of PCs sit around waiting to get sold, they spoil. HP can't buy components as cheaply as when it is selling a lot of new PCs. So profits go down (or prices go up), unit sales are down and the business gets tougher.

HP told analysts that it had cleared up a lot of its old stale-fish Windows PC inventory last quarter and that worldwide inventory levels are healthy going into the quarter." Now the trick will be to make people want to buy them.