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Packard Bell to Shut Down US Line, Lay Off 80%

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the another-one-goes-down dept.

Sonoma76 writes " CNet is reporting that Packard Bell is laying off approximately 80% of its 2300 employees... This seems to be a trend as computer makers that were popular in the early and mid 90s (eg Packard Bell, Acer, and even Tandy) have all been replaced by the agressive marketing efforts of Gateway, EMachines, and MicroWorkz. That's right, no more Packard "Hells" to compare your dream machine with." Hopefully it won't be hard for all the laid-off people to find new jobs.

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm curious... by fidros · · Score: 3

    Packard Bell was the name of an old Amaerican company that made Radios and TV's and was all but a goner when a team of ex-Israelis took over the brand name and strated making computers. They were once the biggest in retail computers and produced not half bad machines. The rumours about "used" parts where most probably a publicity stunt by Compaq more then true incidents. Their big drop came when technical troubles in mass installing Win95 dropped the quality level of their product to sub zero degrees and the rest was a slippery slope from there on... Yes, I used to work for them (not directly). There were some good people there, but the company was a gonner long ago.

    --
    Gilad.
  2. First ON-TOPIC Post! by raydobbs · · Score: 3

    Packard Bell was one of the worst companies I had ever seen in regards to customer service - and product durability. They were sleezy to deal with - including their authorized service centers. It's a shame that so many of their employees are now job-less - but it's the market speaking: If you berate and ignore your customer's needs, turn around and close your eyes to their problems and concerns - don't be suprised that if, or when you turn around, they aren't there anymore... As for the workers - if you are good people, and tried to help everyone you could - there most likely is a better job awaiting you around the corner... :)

  3. Packard Bell's replacement by sigma · · Score: 3
    While we may not have to deal with Packard Bell systems anymore there will always be a market, and a large one at that, for low end systems that sacrifice quality for price.

    Let's take a look at the current trends in the cheap hardware arena:

    Integrated video

    Integrated audio

    Bottom of the line Winmodems

    Non-intel CPUs

    Non-intel chipsets

    How much do these cost cutting measures save? I would say about half over a "real" PC, with the big savings coming from the latter three items.

    Most consumers will just compare MHz ratings, memory size, storage, and make a decision from that. At half the price for what appears to be the same system, they are not going to pass it up.