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Dell Rethinking the Direct-Sales Market
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Apr 29, 2007 07:29 PM
from the breaking-with-tradition dept.
from the breaking-with-tradition dept.
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."
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Dell direct sales (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Enclosures matter in notebooks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, they're butt ugly. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Yeah, they're butt ugly. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Enclosures matter in notebooks... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have never seen a Dell machine that has made me think 'I have to have one of those'. I suspect that the laptops are designed to sell in bulk to corporate customers rather than stand on their own merits.
I certainly would not buy a laptop from a company with the customer service reputation Dell has acquired of late.
Laptops I have seen that I liked are the upmarket Apple models and the Thinkpad X60. For some reason nobody really seems to have gone after the PC market with design cues as strong as Apple's. Sony have come close at times but my experience is that their stuff is fragile.
In the desktop area everyone I know buys Dell because they are the cheapest brand offering an acceptable level of reliability. I bought my son a machine for $500 including the flat panel monitor. Thats much cheaper than the previous one I built for him myself.
Main problem with the Dell's is that they are horribly noisy. This is not something that reviewers think worth a mention for some reason. And when you do find comments they can be useless. If you look at any of the bulletin boards for reviews of high end machines there is always a post from some poor slob who claims to have invested his college fund in an Alienware or the like which came in the wrong shade of green and they took two years to fix it attached to the very latest model.
The PC market seems to be dominated by the DIY aesthetic. Real men don't buy ready made machines. They buy the parts and fit them together. Time is a much more scarce resource for me than money and I don't want a machine that looks like a kit. Thats probably why people by the Voodoo elemental, they just get fed up having to explain to people that they don't need to save $500 building the machine themselves from parts so they drop $3500 having a $7000 machine gold plated. I bought the baseline BAM model and told the wife how much I saved by not going for the 'gold plated' edition, she still thinks it was a figure of speech. Good thing she doesn't read either Slashdot or the Amex bill.
Re:Enclosures matter to some... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Enclosures matter in notebooks... (Score:4, Informative)
seems worse (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:seems worse (Score:5, Insightful)
The inverted-L enter/return key. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.)
To me, it says more about the laptop market (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:To me, it says more about the laptop market (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason laptops are popular with employers is that you can work any time they want.
The reason that desktops used to be popular is that they used to much cheaper, and they were easier to repair which is important when computers are expensive. Neither of these apply so much. It is quite practical to replace laptop every two years or so, which is about right given technology cycles driving hardware requirements, and the fact that you've been working every waking moment.
Re:To me, it says more about the laptop market (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:To me, it says more about the laptop market (Score:4, Interesting)
I think standardisation of laptop parts isn't that likely to happen any time soon, mostly due to hesitance on the part of the manufacturers. They use those non-standard parts to squeeze the most they can into tiny spaces, and differentiate themselves from their competitors, since they can't do so on features very much. Why pay more for Lenovo's build quality if it's the exact same parts as HP's, or why pay more for Sony's design if the cases are available elsewhere? (examples obviously)
That is a mistake (Score:5, Informative)
Dell's slide... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Dell's slide... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Dell's slide... (Score:5, Insightful)
Using the same chips alone doesn't mean that the entire systems have comparable build quality, if that's what you are implying.
brainstorming here - one thing Dell could do is (Score:5, Funny)
Still more PR; Dell's tried "the channel" plenty (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Dell already has the solution (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Why I don't buy Dell... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Why I don't buy Dell... (Score:4, Insightful)
Dell isn't the cheapest alternative you can get, but there is more to it than just price. For example, a lot of people care more about the on-site support and such. And I really can't say they are that expensive either. Surely, a pre-configured computer is almost always cheaper, it is rarely everything you want.
You say that Dell and other big OEM:s are a bad thing. I have to disagree there. Without them, we would have fewer industry standards and we would probably end up having regional settings to everything. At least these giants push to unify hardware. Also, they do bring a lot of competition to the table, which is always a good thing for the customer. A zillion small retail chains around the world would also eventually turn into a few after some time, simply because one would eventually do better than the other, buy the latter one and continue with its expansion. That's how it works.
My company has been buying computers from Dell for years. I don't know how your friends would end up with faulty hardware like that, but it is a rarity here. Of course computers fuck up every now and then, but Apple's batteries explode, the Volvo cars get tire dents and your shoe laces will be torn eventually.
Re:That was quick... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That was quick... (Score:5, Funny)