How Much Are You Paying For A Nameplate?

Matey-O writes: "I realize most of you built your systems youself (with mad overclocking style) but if you've purchased a fully built system receintly from Compaq, Dell, HP or Apple, you may have a computer built by Quanta, a very quiet, very successful Taiwanese manufacturing company. NY times article here." (This is true at least of notebooks.)

Comments

Nameplates

[Dead Penis Bird]

With a major brand name, you're paying for marketing and advertising, as well as the product. If a brand name is good enough to gain a reputation by word-of-mouth alone, it's likely to be true, as negative criticism spreads twice as fat as positive.

Now, if they only made desktops...

So What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone heard of an OEM? They build components to the clients specifications. It happens across the board in the tech industry and is nothing new - remember that the first IBM box was 'off the shelf' components.

When Dell first started using Quanta (they also used Compal MoBo's) in laptops in 1998, they got to specify the quality and construction of the product. You might find the same boards in a Time PC or a Tiny PC, but I guarantee that the Dell's will have a better mean time between failures (MBF).

This had some interesting side-effects. It also meant that some strange side-effects occurred. For instance in mid-1999, you had HP and Dell machines with interchangeable components as they were both based on Quanta decks. This actiually proved useful.

So and OEM behind laptops? Bring 'em on! All we need is for them to sell components to the public and self-built laptops aren't that far away.

No killer application?

[Mattygfunk]

Beyond that, executives here recognize that the boom in notebook computers cannot last forever. For now, laptops continue to flourish as consumers and companies move away from cumbersome desktop PC's. But Mr. Lam said there was no "killer application" on the horizon that would fuel demand once sales of notebooks reached a plateau.

While the first statement seems very sound and realistic the last seams a little short-sighted.

The "killer app" to convert desktop users to notebook users after the plateau is not software. It is the "Internet anyware", wireless, portable, comunications terminal that is a laptop. PDA's are convenient and do their job, ie. quick basic computing on the go. People want portability and that is the notebooks "killer app".

Re:How much are you paying for the WARRANTY?

[Brento]

Funnily enough, the last time I checked with my IS guys, I could put together two complete no-brand systems for what they pay for a full Dell system + support.

You forgot about the killer hidden cost: labor. I don't disagree that it'd be much cheaper in materials for us all to build our own boxen (but not laptops, mind you). Factor in just $60/hr for salary, benefits, and support costs for an in-house box-builder. I can build a standardized box in less than an hour, but then there's the OS install, service packs, and device drivers - there goes another two hours. Toss in the app installations, and there goes half a day, and more than $300 in labor - and we haven't even discussed burn-in testing.

Or, I can just pick up the phone and get my customized install done by Dell, drop-installed to anybody's office. Zero labor costs.