To all, Ka-ching. I think the penny just dropped. This is just speculation, so take it for what it's worth. But it seems to make some sense to my flea-infested mind:
Intel is suddenly enjoying higher sales. Box sales growth is not increasing, especially to end users. How can this be? Hint: Compaq had an 8 page insert in Illiterate's Business Daily Monday edition pushing their new direct box sales to business. Hmmmmmm!
Compaq is using different brand names for this move and wants to make a big splash with its on time delivery and service. Is it possible that, while paying lip service to low inventory levels, that Compaq has built some fairly sizable inventory at this new operation? After all, they do not want to fall on their face in the fisrt few months of operation. So, they have the components in place for when the calls come. Yes, they will start shifting to much leaner inventories after they get their foot in the door. Meanwhile, they are still placing the same number of orders to Intel to stuff their regular distribution channels. So, we have double ordering from the largest pc boxmaker and a very large player in the server business.
I am throwing this out as a possibility. If anyone sees any holes in this logic, please note them. But it looks to me like Compaq is basically gearing up an entirely new channel of distribution and has ordered components accordingly, while competitors stuff the channel as usual.
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