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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (158487)	7/12/2000 9:18:28 PM
From: Mike Van Winkle	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176388

Kemble, this article postulates the legacy PC is here to stay. dailynews.yahoo.com Wednesday July 12 02:15 PM EDT The legacy desktop PC will rule By John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine The most-overlooked aspect of computer marketing has to do with gestalt, a concept that encompasses image and relationship between the user and the device. This came to mind the other day when I was trying to explain the appeal of the Nextel walkie-talkie function. It also helps me explain why the legacy desktop PC will continue to rule. My thinking began this way: Someone was asking me how I liked the Nextel system and specifically asked about the phone's rather wacky walkie-talkie function. Working exactly like a half duplex two-way radio, the phone can call certain people in your work group and blurt out your message from a walkie-talkie-like speaker on the phone. You can then chat back and forth just as if you were on a walkie-talkie. The system uses the Nextel cell repeaters to perform this function, and you can usually broadcast to the person within any one state. So I can do this with people in my work group from San Francisco to Los Angeles. For people who have to call the same people over and over using a cell phone, this function is invaluable and a free part of the Nextel service. More important, the function has a different gestalt than does the phone itself. Using a walkie-talkie, because of its nature, is different than using a phone. It's less conversation-driven and more command-driven. You ask where someone is. You tell them to do something. Messages are short, concise, and businesslike, with few needless pleasantries or unnecessary chitchat. It's perfect for a lot of situations. Thinking about the gestalt of such a phone made me realize that this difference exists throughout the high-tech environment, especially with computers where the gestalt tends to be overlooked. It's especially overlooked by people who promote the idea of a post-PC era. Let's start with laptops. You seldom use a laptop in the same ways you use a desktop system. Anyone who uses a laptop on the road and a desktop in the office understands this. I would hypothesize that a lot more work gets done on a full desktop environment than in a laptop environment. While you might argue that just the keyboard and screen of a laptop hinders productivity, I think there's more to it than that. A laptop is simply not a work-oriented machine. It's a convenience-oriented machine, and that's the real problem with being productive on a laptop: the gestalt. No matter how a big a laptop's screen, it can never psychologically replace a desktop's, unless the laptop is docked to a large monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The laptop itself should be hidden someplace. This brings me to information appliances, workpads, and wireless devices, including WAP phones. Knowing that the explosive growth of the Internet and the Web took place solely on workstation computers, can we expect the phenomenon to duplicate itself in other environments where the gestalt is so different? Since the growth was so explosive, I would argue that the workstation environment is peculiarly suited for the Internet and the Web. Look at the challengers. WebTV, for example, has gone nowhere despite the fact that WebTV in its current iteration is a remarkable piece of technology with one of the best self-configuration software systems I've seen in years. Is it possible that all these dreams of alternative Internet access from phones to various dedicated appliances are doomed to fail? To feel "right" on the Internet, the user must be at a computer. It's the gestalt again. All other access models are mere conveniences only to be used when the primary method cannot be used. If given a choice, a person will always take the computer workstation. Now this doesn't mean that certain specialty applications, such as those available on the Palm VII or the BlackBerry device, don't have their places. They're like the walkie-talkie built into the Nextel phone: They have a distinctive use that doesn't need workstation access. The Palm VII is used for such things as getting real-time stock quotes for the addicted trader. The BlackBerry device is a next-generation pager with e-mail functionality that actually substitutes for a laptop when someone is travelling. But note how many of these devices fight among themselves as the workstation computer stands alone with nothing to threaten it. The workstation computer has become a basic device just like the telephone or automobile. This is why no matter how cheap a network PC, an Internet PC, WebTV, or any other devices become, they won't supplant or even threaten the classic or legacy PC with its standalone functionality. For over 25 years, through a Darwinian process of trial and error, the legacy PC has bonded with us, creating the perfect gestalt for both work and Internet use. Denying this fact is wishful thinking.

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (158487)	7/12/2000 10:41:17 PM
From: J. D. Main	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176388

Pilgrims.....Volunteer country. "Been there, done that." Will start this tonight and finish hopefully tomorrow. First of all it would help if you are on the same page as I am, so bring up the following URL, print it off, and you'll be able to follow me along very nicely. The URL is: tennessean.com Okay.....With this information in hand here we go. After 700 miles (all of it very hot) the wife an I arrive in the City limits of Nashville. With City map in hand, an a compass in the overhead of the vehicle, and being a former Military Navigator finding the Dell Complex will be no darn problem. Wrong! We got lost. Asking directions of a fellow motorist while we were both at a red light got me back on course. I think I was right in the first place, but the wife steered me wrong. Yeh, right! I was in the vicinity of Harding Pl. and McGavock Rd stopped in traffic when I noticed a sign bearing the Dell logo off to my left. Checking further we found this to be Dell's Technical Support Training Center. Approximately 30-35 students are trained in every class an I assume off they go for OJT as Support Personnel. This Facility isn't huge, nor does it have to be for the purpose served. IMO this is one of the Facilities Dell first built in the area. I could be wrong on this however. Nevertheless! I talked with one of the student who was leaving, and of course I asked directions to the Dell Complex. I knew where it was all the time, I was just checking her out to see if she also knew. Yeh right again! We leave Harding Pl. and take a slight jog to the left an enter Donelson Pk. A very short trip up a slight hill and we find ourselves with the Dell Complex on our left hand side where the old Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute used to be located. As we pull off Donelson Pk. an into the Dell Complex the very first thing that we come across is a massive parking lot with more space to be used as same ready for the black- top just off to our left. After driving approximately 100 yards we find two Office Buildings which are nicely nearing completion. One appears to be a 3-story Facility, while the other slightly less finished appears to be a 2-story Facility. Picture these two Facilities as running North to South on the map. Just beyond these two Facilities you cross a 5-lane highway which I was told used to be a 2-lane highway leading into the Mental Health Institute from Murfreesboro Rd. The road is so new that no lane markings have yet been laid down. Now this road IMO would exclusively be used for the Dell Complex as the road dead-ends about 1/3 of a mile to the South. To the West of this road lies the Dell AM-1 Manufacturing Facility. If you have ever seen the Dell Server Facility on West Howard Lane in Austin then you have for all practical purposes seen the Dell AM-1 Manufacturing Facility in Nashville. Before leaving for the night here is another URL showing the Mental Health Institute as it used to be: tennessean.com More tomorrow. Best.....J.D. (Detective Clueso)