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Dell Rethinking the Direct-Sales Market
Dell has always sold directly to consumers via their web site and phone operations; it's a basic element of their business. Chairman and chief executive Michael Dell is now conceding that the company may need to rethink basic practices by considering alternative methods of selling their products. While initially no specifics are given, the thought seems to be than eventually the company will begin working with a retail chain. "Dell's direct model came under pressure as the market for PCs shifted to notebooks from desktops last year. It is harder to custom configure notebook computers, so they had to be manufactured in advance, which lost Dell some of its cost advantage. In addition, consumers were showing a preference for touching and feeling a notebook PC before buying it."
Dell has always sold directly to consumers via their web site and phone operations;
No they haven't. Dell got their start by selling through smaller computer chain stores before their direct phone/catalog sales and the invention of the WWW.
Let's not forget the fact that while Dell laptops are oftentimes nice machines, their enclosures are hideous, clunky pieces of plastic that can't hold a candle to Thinkpads or Macbooks.
How do you stock up to date hardware in brick and mortar stores? I never buy from physical stores because everything is lagging 3 months behind in price and technology.
We are all just people.
someone give this guy a cookie.
It is harder to custom configure notebook computers, so they had to be manufactured in advance
I think that this might have to do with the shift to the laptop market. A shift that I am not convinced is permanent. And if the shift to the laptop is permanent, there will have to be changes.
This might seem like an overly harsh judgement, but to me the major reason for adopting laptops is sex appeal. Most people who want laptops seem to be impressed by how sleek they look, and by how cool it is to hang around in a coffee shop with a laptop. I know there are plenty of people who need laptops for their jobs, but I still think the majority of people are looking at them as an accessory. And most of these people don't know what they are getting into, because after a year or so, when the proprietary screen cracks, or the proprietary power supply goes dead, or any of the other little pieces no longer work, people are very surprised that they have to spend time and money searching for a replacement.
I think that as the laptop market matures, and people have this happen, there may be some demand to standardize laptop parts. This will change both how easy it is to custom make laptops, amongst other things.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
What they need is to have new models. The difference between theirs and say a cheap chinese model is minimal. They need to start innovating again. If they start selling Linux, that is to their advantage. If they developed new ideas, rather than just rebranding others, that is to their advantage. But as it stands, Dell will continue losing ground esp if they start selling their system via regular sales channels.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Coming from someone who used to work at a retailer who serviced machines - Dells are the WORSE. The quality of their product has gone downhill ever since the late ninties - and now are just horseshit. Specialized cheap hardware with crappy support. They reap what they sew in this case. People have stopped shopping with Dell not because they are direct-to-customer - they have stopped because the product is poor, and there are better alternatives now.
Yeah, I find it really odd that while the rest of the world seemingly moved on, Dell still makes laptops that are vaguely reminiscent of plumbing fixtures.
Squarish corners, clean, straight lines, and monotone color schemes are in; Dell's laptops all cheap and plasticky compared to Apple's or IBM/Lenovo's. In particular, the two-tone color scheme they seem to like just emphasizes the seams in the case, rather than minimizing them like a single color (white, black, silver -- doesn't really matter) would. And round corners say 'toy' while square ones say 'tool,' which I think is something they ought to be going for.
What's particularly odd is that although (at least in the black color), the better IBM/Lenovo laptops really haven't changed too much in external appearance over the years -- their styling is pretty consistent -- Dell's somehow end up looking more "dated," even though they've presumably been designed more recently.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I hate-hate-hate the Toshiba inverted upside down "L" enter key. It's impossible to work with. So, I stay away from *all* Toshiba laptops online, because I don't have the tactile in-person guarantee that I will find their keyboard acceptable.
I'm pretty sure that's not just a Toshiba thing, or at least they didn't really invent it. I used to have a Panasonic electric typewriter (one of the very late, high-speed, daisy-wheel ones) that had the same thing. I was never clear on what its purpose was, or if it was a Japanese thing or a legacy of some older typewriter keyboard. (Oddly enough, though, modern Panasonic computers such as the Toughbooks don't have it.)
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
... liquidate the company's assets and distribute the proceeds to the shareholders.
Whenever sales go into the crapper, it's every direct-model vendor's sworn duty to look at "the channel". I can't tell you how many times Dell's announced that they'll do right by "the channel" who uniformly hates Dell's very existence for sins over two decades. Dell's advertisements dissed "the channel", and each time Dell tried to bolster sales by stuffing alternate channels with product, the price dropped out like a rock, no one made any money, and Dell got a nice looking quarter to report to Wall Street. Yet people fall for it every time.
It's like the Look-Mikey Uses Linux PR that so many swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
Dell was built on direct sales. They do it very well. They found that they can't do support out of India for domestic North American consumption, and so their costs are up. Once again, they'll have to squeeze somebody to make their quarter look good to Wall Street. Guess who it is this time.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Around here, they have Dell kiosks in the mall to showcase their products. Sort of like the sony stores. You can go an touch and see a Dell, and then order it up and it gets delivered to your door.
Its good marketing. Even if the kiosks never actually sell a unit, just having them out there will give the 'i wanna touch it' crowd that security so they can go home and order online with confidence -- and hey I'm not mocking them, I am in that crowd. You really have to feel a laptop to determine its weight, get a sense of its build quality, feel the keyboard and trackpad, evaluate screen viewing angle, brightness etc.
Plus it strengthens the brand recognition, and can put a human face on the transaction.
All these things benefit Dell.
Personally, I could hardly care less what it looks like.
What matters is: is it easy to use? Can I use the mouse with my thumbs? Is the screen readable in sunlight? Is the 'enter' key big enough that I can't miss it? Does it have a caps lock light so that I don't shout inadvertently? Does it have a fast processor? And lots of RAM? Oh, and does it have Linux?
Give me all of that for a reasonable price and it can look like a dog turd for all I care.
...and probably never will.
;) It's a win all around.
I am on a disability support pension, and get around $500 AUD for hardware upgrades, once every 12 months. There is a local (relatively small) computer repair place near where I live, which I go to every year. Because I went there last year, and am almost certain to go there next year, the guy there realises that although it isn't much, my money is a relatively sure thing for him. Not only that, I've managed to get him some additional business from other family members at times as well.
Due to the above however, I am able to get a new case, motherboard, processor, and ram from him for that $500 (maybe $580) each year. This also means that I can buy a box one year, and a monitor the next, at the rate that I can afford it.
If I went to one of the chain stores here and asked for a Dell, I wouldn't be quoted a price of much less than $2,000, and the only way I could hope to pay for that would be on credit, which being on a pension I probably wouldn't be able to get. Due to the precarious nature of my financial situation I also wouldn't want it, even if they were willing to give it to me.
Dell (and the other big OEMs) are a bad thing, in my mind. In addition to the inflexibility on price, I've known a couple of other people who've bought complete systems and been given faulty hardware; I myself got burned on that score the one time I was able to do it. Not only that, Microsoft's monopoly only really exists because of people like Michael Dell; his profit margin per unit is so small that they are able to bully him in terms of the price of Windows, and dictate that people pay such things as the "Microsoft tax," as well as making it as difficult as it is for other operating systems (such as Linux) to enter the market.
I realise that for some people, technical knowledge and other reasons prevent them from going to the little guy and buying parts; but if you can do it, I advocate it. Not only will it be cheaper in most instances, in my experience you have less chance of getting faulty hardware, and you also don't end up supporting one of the big corporate behemoths that I know people on Slashdot hate so much.
We shall now read from the book of Jobs, chapter 5:21:01 - "thou shalt go forth and multiply thine retail presence in upscale shopping areas, or within 200 yards of any Starbucks, and thou shalt be rewarded with massive growth for thine stockholders."
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slashdot did that when he logged in
Jayne: "These are stone killers, little man. They ain't cuddly like me."
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