Are you still around Jim Patterson ?
Chuzz- I posted the following question on the IBM Thread (I paraphrase): "Some Dell bears have argued that CPQ, HP, and IBM are moving (have moved) their PC operations in the direction of being loss leaders, and that they are willing to take losses on the hardware side to get at the fat service revenue, and that this trend will be accelerating in the future...What are your thoughts?"
So far, two responses....both posters indicating that they thought IBM will (continue to) run their PC biz as (essentially) a stand-alone, for profit biz...
One response: "Each product set, whether software, hardware or services has to stand on its own and make money. To sell PCs at a loss in order to grow another business segment is full of all kinds of problems including legal and anti-trust implications. So this is not the business model IBM uses and the "Dell bears" are incorrect in their hypothsis"...
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So my (albeit limited) research indicates that neither HP or IBM have any intention of such a strategy, and in fact, it is probably more likely that either would exit the PC biz BEFORE they would enter such an arrangement.....Will CPQ try it? Well, if they would, looks like they'll be the only one......Would this make sense? Hmmmm.....I wouldn't bet on it..... |
