CFO John Connors said the company sees industry-wide personal computer salesgrowing 12 to 15 per cent for its fiscal year beginning July -- a brighterpicture than the company painted when it reported its third quarter earningsin April. "Consumer PC growth has been in the double-digits, and businessPCs have been in the single-digits," said CFO John Connors in an interviewat a PaineWebber conference here. "We see overall PC growth for our fiscalyear beginning in July of between 12 and 15 per cent."

Microsoft -- which has a wide view of the computer industry because it sellsoperating systems for most personal computers, cited slow PC growth as onereason it had lowered its outlook in April for year-over-year revenue growthto 15 per cent from 20 per cent. Connors reiterated on Tuesday that 20 percent revenue growth rates were not within reach, despite a recovery in thebusiness PC market and the release of the Windows 2000 operating system,which he said was on track.

"Twenty-plus growth is unrealistic unless some things change, because the(company's revenue) base is very large," Connors said. He declined tocomment on the fiscal fourth quarter, except to say that when the companylowered guidance in April, it was because it was "a difficult quarter." "Weexpected it to be tough, and we're working very hard" to meet expectations,he said. He reiterated that in fiscal year 2001, the company expects toachieve 15 per cent year-over-year revenue growth rates, which he called "alot of dough." "Once we get the legal volume turned down and the DoJ(Department of Justice) case goes into the appeals process, I think we canhave the kind of growth we feel good about and the people in this room canfeel good about," he told investors at the conference. Connors said that thetwists and turns of the government's antitrust lawsuit against theRedmond-based company had taken its toll on the spirits of employees.