There's often a jump in computer sales between the summer and the fall, especially with a new OS on the way, but we wouldn't count on a return to the halcyon days.

ENGADGET: Gartner and IDC: PC shipments tumbled over 8 percent in Q3, only ASUS and Lenovo escaped unhurt

Best Buy said smartphone sales continued to rise compared with a year ago, as did portable computer totals, buoyed by the iPad.

WSJ: Cellphone Sales Boost Best Buy Profit

Clothing sales made the biggest breakthrough last year, with apparel and accessories displacing computer hardware and software as the top non-travel category in online retail.

FORBES: Web Shoppers Tapping The Brakes

Gateway, the low-cost computer maker that competes with Dell, has already said it expected lower than expected sales in the fourth quarter of the year.

BBC: Tech stock medley

Both should also benefit some from the recent problems that Dell is having with its direct sales model, once thought to be a bigger threat to retail store computer sales.

FORBES: Magazine Article

One of the first calls Bob Longo, a former sales chief for the failed computer company Jobs founded called NeXT Computer, made after getting diagnosed with cancer was to Jobs. (They shared the same oncologist and radiologist.) The pair kept in touch, Longo recalled to the Pittsburgh Business Times, and Longo received an exuberant e-mail from Jobs after telling him the news that Longo's surgery was successful.

CNN: Mark Milian,