[Dr. Sivana]

Dell PC business – dying, Desktop staff in USA terminated.
Dell made the iPod-killer – flop, cancelled
Dell Adamo – flop, revived and refreshed; flop and cancelled
Dell Personal Data Assistant – flop, cancelled and disavowed
Dell 7 inch tablet – flop
Dell Cell phone – flop, cancelled, staff executed
Dell Smartphone – ?
Dell Tablet – ?


A little more than 10 years, after Apple failures with Quickdraw GX, Pink, Newton, Apple digital camera, and the Centris line, Michael Dell stated that Apple should just quit and pack it in.

It wasn't true about Apple, and it isn't true about Dell.

Now that there are only a handful of companies left, Dell is well positioned as a commodity player in both personal and business markets. That is hardly a death spiral.

They are not my favorite, but I have used them on and off since their PC's Limited days. The company was never about innovation. They are a well run business that scaled up to Fortune 500 very quickly because they mae commodity boxes with a better value than most competotors, and always made money doing it.

They outlasted Leading Edge, AST, Everex. Northgate, and effectively Gateway, it's closest competitor in terms of business model. They went from mail order only to some store sales, back to mail order only, and now into Wal-Marts.

Apple sells the Jaguars and Lexuses, Dell sell the Chevies. And like any full line, it has clunkers.

They can handle HP, Acer, Sony and Lenovo. There just aren't a lot of players in that space any more. Dells servers remain a decent value.

[Hodar]

Dell used to make decisions, based upon first-hand technical knowledge. The Dell model worked wonderfully, because they USED to present a robust, well-designed machine.

Today, they make very inexpensive boxes, relatively lower quality boxes. They purchased Alienware, because Alienware was capturing the high-performance, high quality market; however through extensive cost-cutting measures; this too is dying.

What Dell has done, is watered down their name. Who are they? Printers? Monitors? Laptops? PDA? Cell Phone? Tablet?

The hundreds of millions of dollars in re-calls they have gone through, due to failing capacitors are legendary. When you off-shore your customer-support, when you reduce your quality of your product to only survive through the warranty period - you spell your own doom. Ask GM how shoddy workmanship and poor quality worked for them.

HP struggled under Carly - a Biztard with no grasp of what HP made. Dell is under the same curse. Engineers are expendable - but Biztards stay without regard to the damage they have done. In short, Dell doesn’t understand the technology he wields.

The Dell model is in question, at least for consumers. I buy a PC at Walmart, if there is a problem - I have a NEW computer in a box, or my money back in a matter of hours.

Order a Dell, pay your money NOW. Then wait 2 weeks for it to be built, tested and shipped. Problem? Call India, wait in que and go through the Tech Script. After a bit of time (minutes to hours) they will ship you another REFURBISHED machine. So, in a week you get a USED machine; when you paid for a new one. If you have problems now ..well, it’s beyond the warranty period - so you can’t get your money back. The best you can hope for, is to get another REFURBISHED PC in a week or so (pronounced “Someone eles’s problem).

They scaled quickly, because they offered PC customization when no one else did. They offered (past tense) fantastic customer support when no one else did. Times have changed, Dell hasn’t.