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IBM To Leave The Desktop?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the maybe-could-be dept.

Matey-O writes "John C. Dvorak's got an interesting article on IBM's behavior towards desktop PCs of late. In short, aside from the profitable laptop sales, their desktop sales lost the company roughly $1B in a serioulsy UP market. Showing no interest in the 20 year anniversary of the desktop, it looks like IBM wants to get out of the industry it effectively started. " Granted, the article is extreme conjecture, but it's still an interesting thought - the Thinkpad group, tho', rocks.

3 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. It's a tough market for everyone now by EMIce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ask anyone selling hardware now how the market is and they'll tell you it's damn tough, be it Dell or the corner shop. Profit margin's have steadily declined as competition among manufacturers and quality has increased. Machines after IBM's PS1 and PS2 lines were made mostly by subcontractors and were poorly built. They had this coming, especially with the way the market has gone. It's a good thing they kept the Thinkpads in-house, their still my favorite laptop by far.

  2. Re:You mean they aren't? by kawlyn · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I have a couple of client's that will buy nothing by IBM. Now granted they are a minority, and I rarely have cause to visit them, since nothing ever breaks. IBM hardware is some of the best out there unfortunately it does come at a premium price.

    I know several people that cannnot justify paying more that $1500CDN on a machine when they know that can replace in 12 months for $600CDN. The though here is why pay for a warranty/support that you're probably not going to use.

    I can tell you that a big buyer is the Government, but that's hardly surprising. Dell is making inroads with the government, but after 2 or 3 support calls the big depts go back to IBM or HP.

    --

    When someone yells "Stop" or goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over.
  3. Dell has won by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Being a profitable desktop computer maker has little to do with technology these days - its all about operations, logistics, and cost controls. Dell has simply outmoded the usual suspects, HP, Compaq and IBM, kaing it simply too costly to stay in the market.

    For IBM, this is a smart move as commodity electronics is not closely related to their new profit centers - research, services, and high end computing.

    For Compaq and HP, continuing to go up against Dell is simply going to result in more layoffs and downsizing.