It always comes down to who can do it faster and more often than not, cheaper. The Inquirer reports that we will likely see another Hardware sales slump that will mean a ‘crash and burn’ for select hardware manufacturers.

While this is a shame to be sure, it is also a natural fact of life. As the industry continues to burn off the fat, companies attached to those unwanted inches will likely fall with it.

This prediction is from the latest bit of crystal ball gazing from the analyst outfit Gartner. The Mystic Big G behind the curtain said that slower growth and reduced profits are likely to squeeze tin makers until their pips squeak.

Gartner did not name any candidates for departure but suggested many are vulnerable. In fact the only one that Gartner had a nice word to say was the Great Satan of Hardware, Dell, claiming it was the only consistently profitable global computer vendor in the last several years.

The list of names at the top are Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, Toshiba, NEC, Apple, the Chinese company formerly known as Legend and Gateway.