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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mani1 who wrote (76168)	10/20/1999 12:26:00 AM
From: Mani1	Respond to of 1570913

IBM's Aptiva will still be sold at OfficeMax IBM's Aptiva will still be sold at OfficeMax By Joe Wilcox Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 19, 1999, 7:10 p.m. PT IBM is not going to sell its entire consumer desktop line exclusively on the Internet after all. Big Blue today said that customers will be able to buy Aptiva PCs at a handful of OfficeMax stores, as well as online. Yesterday, IBM announced that after January 1, consumers in North America will have to go to the ShopIBM Web site to get an Aptiva system. The computer maker also clarified its strategy for promoting its online sales, announcing a $20 million ad campaign. As reported yesterday, analysts said selling online would be a challenge to Big Blue because it spends so little to promote its Aptiva brand. Obviously embarrassing, the flip-flop reinforces the struggles traditional PC manufacturers have had in coming to grips with so-called direct sales. The success of Dell and Gateway in marketing directly to consumers has encouraged IBM, Compaq, and others to adopt direct sales, but the approach risks these companies' relationships with established retailers and has caused no little confusion. The OfficeMax retail efforts mark IBM's last bricks-and-mortar sales channel of the computer line. In June, IBM launched a pilot program in several OfficeMax locations, following a store-within-a-store concept, where a section of the store specializes in IBM products, that was successful in Japan. "Think about why it works in Japan and why we hope it will work at OfficeMax, vs. what happens when you go in another retail store," said IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino. "There might be 25 boxes on the shelf that look similar, and a sales staff with no incentive to sell IBM over another brand." "How are you going to succeed in that kind of model?" asked Guarino. "We need to look at a model that works." But the OfficeMax approach may not be the right one for Aptiva, said analysts, who point out that Big Blue created the stores within OfficeMax mainly to serve small businesses and not consumers. The overall consumer strategy for IBM will be online, with OfficeMax remaining as a beachhead in the retail market and as a model for possible return to that market, IBM said. It plans to reevaluate its OfficeMax commitment after the first quarter. Big Blue's retreat from retail is a result of the bruising competition in the cheap-PC arena, analysts said. "IBM wants to play in the consumer space, but they may not want to play in the $299 PC space," said Kevin Knox, research director for the Gartner Group. "IBM is not going to compete and win the price wars with Emachines and the rest of the crowd. You may see them continue in the higher end where they can bring differentiated solutions to the table," he said. But sources close to IBM's personal systems group said selling direct on the Internet won't solve fundamental problems the company is having in driving any type of strategy. "IBM is having difficulty implementing their online consumer strategy and they're way, way behind schedule," Technology Business Research analyst Joe Ferlazzo said. "Part of the reason they're behind is they're not making money selling to consumers." news.cnet.com

To: Mani1 who wrote (76168)	10/20/1999 12:51:00 AM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570913

Mani, I have great doubts that AMD makes or sells any portables, however I do agree that 60% of the laptops sold use AMD CPUs, and that includes all kinds..Dell, etc. If retail means you can shake the hand of the buyer then only the screwdriver shops do true retail. As to the industry calling on line direct, they do it is called "direct retail". Indirect retail is where IBM ships to Office max and thus it is said that IBM is in indirect retail. The process of going to direct retail by phone, mail or the web is called "disintermediation"...the disappearance of the intermediary(Office max). So all the office Maxes are going to starve?, yes they are...or they will downsize to the point where they can still exist on what they can in fact sell by indirect retail. Bill

To: Mani1 who wrote (76168)	10/20/1999 1:11:00 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570913

Mani RE <<<According to the industry, ONLINE SALES ARE NOT RETAIL.>> What industry are you talking about? Who said this? RE <<<This is not open to argument. Whether the industry is right in this characterization can be debated.>>> You are saying that when PCWorld or Mercury Research provides statistics for PC retail sales for a quarter, they are not including Dell's online sales. I doubt that very much. I will email one of them tomorrow and ask. ted