chuzz..re the look of the future...
cpq, hwp, ibm...all guilty of the same fatal marketing error...they misjudged the retail consumer, used in essence the same sales/retail outlets and believed they could sell "quality" and "name brand" as they had in the past...their ability to offer "preferential deals to the resellers, took shelf space away from the generics...but not knowing what the other was doing they sat side by side in the same department of compusa, circuit city, best buys, micro center, et al
inventory backed up...prices cut, and taking a page out of the auto industry book, they offered "bundled" specials and rebates...the consumer did not buy "name brand", but purely price, for the majority of machines sold at this level were sold by those who knew little to those who knew less...
the sub 1k computer was borne out of the unholy three attempting to "repair" what they had caused...didn't work...
dell sits back, sells to those that were once loyal to the aforementioned...for ibm,cpq,hwp...creates such a broad product line that in confuses the buyer....and causes chaos to their manufacturing in the form of "what should we make this week?"...and then "now where do we sell what we just made"....
i truly believe the desire to grow revenues at any cost is the cause..
let the market be critical of dell....at some time, the reality will impact on even the "wisest" of analysts... |
