Jack -
All of this #2 stuff is BS - DELL is at 2/3 of CPQ's volume worldwide, has made no inroads into CPQ's server share, has not dislodged any of the leaders in web servers (HP, IBM, SUN are ahead of them and CPQ is the runaway leader in that space). CPQ grew consumer sales 68% last quarter and continues to dominate the consumer market.
The only area where DELL may have pulled ahead of CPQ is commercial desktops in the US. DELL has won that business fair and square through excellent execution, innovative thinking, and aggressive use of their business model to price under CPQ. But that does not necessarily translate to other business for DELL. The transition to #1 in that particular market has been a foregone conclusion for a long time, at least in my mind - I predicted it in November of '98, before CPQ's current problems became visible.
As a DELL shareholder, I am delighted with their earnings statement and their last quarter's performance. But this piling on to CPQ is devoid of facts. DELL will have a much harder time displacing the current leaders in most other segments, and in virtually all of those segments the current top dog is CPQ. |
