Re: my concern is where is the innovation in product design..
This is where I disagree with many on the thread and agree with
Dell's strategy of avoiding innovation for technology sake.
The key to driving growth, market share and shareholder value
is not tightly coupled with the innovation of new technologies.
If anything, the lessons of the industry has proven just the
opposite.
Apple computer is a perfect example... they for all practical
purposes invented windows and developed some of the most
brilliant new technologies and devices. It has gotten their
shareholders nowhere.
Dell innovates more subtly and in areas that aren't readily
apparent to the masses and in areas that offer the most value
to their customers. Take Optiplex chassis designs.
They may be ugly on the outside but they are beautiful
on the inside. They have spawned many patents, won many awards
and have won a lot of new large corporate accounts. Dell's
chassis story was unmatched by competitors (AAPL, CPQ, HWP, IBM)
for years, and to some extent, still is. Again, all we see
is an ugly beige box, but in reality, it's a groundbreaking
design.
Innovation is everywhere, Dell has built a model that profits
from only those products that succeed in the marketplace. If
Dell decided to become a testing ground for radically new products,
I would likely cease to be a shareholder. I love innovation as
much as the next guy, but I don't want to fund it, just profit
from it.
These concepts are expanded upon in great detail in Michael
Dell's book.
MEATHEAD
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