Techie, it's pretty complicated. To understand Dell's vision you need some insight into the world of computer automated engineering and design as well as the scientific, medical and financial computing needs that must be met with powerful PC's and applications.
You wont find these apps at Computer City or Best Buy. The average consumer would'nt have a clue as to what these programs are, why they require workstation power or who would use them. Ever tried designing
a Honda Accord, a 747, a pair of Nike basketball shoes, a PC, a cellular phone, etc... ask yourself, what kinds of applications do you need to perform these tasks?
Look around you and notice how fast every item you buy seems to
be improving faster and faster. It's no coincidence.
For many of these tasks, the available hardware and applications just
aren't powerful enough yet.... not by a long shot.
Rest assured there is huge opportunity in revenue dollars at
the high end. Intel estimates that workstations will
command 90 billion in revenue in just 3 years. That's over
half the estimated 170 billion for desktops. Out of that 170B,
only about 35B will come from sub-1000 PC's (why go there?). We havent even touched on servers or portable revenue potential.
It's pretty obvious that with numbers like these, incremental
gains in market share at the high end go a long way towards
keeping ASP's healthy. Look at Dell's trend. 3 years ago,
80% of their revenue came from desktops. Today, it's 67%.
MEATHEAD |
