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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rudedog who wrote (96656)	3/28/2002 7:56:19 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Dell's Margins Suffering? by: skeptically 03/28/02 07:41 pm Msg: 279207 of 279207 news.com.com Dell prices take a new turn By John G. Spooner Staff Writer, CNET News.com March 28, 2002, 2:40 PM PT Dell Computer roiled the PC market by relentlessly cutting prices in 2001, but the company is taking a different tack this year. Dell, which successfully mounted a campaign to cut prices and gain market share against competitors last year, has slowed its price cuts in recent months because of component price increases, and some say it has even raised prices within certain segments of its product line. While the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker hasn't raised the price tag on specific PCs, a move already taken by both NEC and Apple Computer, the company has changed the configurations on existing PCs to avoid price increases. Additionally, the company came out with new, slightly higher priced models to replace cheaper, older ones in some instances. The Dimension 2200 desktop introduced this week, for instance, replaces the Dimension 2100. The new PC comes with a 1.2GHz Celeron processor--faster than the 1.1GHz found in the base level 2100--better speakers, and a faster hard drive. However, it's also priced starting at $669, $40 more than the Dimension 2100, which started at $629 and is no longer available, according to research firm ARS. And although Dell's Web site allows consumers to customize PCs, the 1.1GHz chip isn't an option on the Dimension 2200. Dell is "forcing you to spend more money, yes. But they're doing it...by bumping (up) base components," said Toni Duboise, desktop analyst with ARS. "The prices are increasing incrementally, but along with that, they're increasing the strength of the components in their bundle." The change largely comes as a result of component price increases. Memory, which many manufacturers sold for below cost last November, has since more than tripled in price, a rare phenomenon that has put pressure on manufacturers. Flat-panel monitors, an increasingly popular option, have also gone up. For the most part, Dell has reconfigured PCs to avoid price hikes, according to Mike Maher, a company spokesman. Some PCs now come with less memory. If consumers want more, they can purchase it. "We can emphasize different pieces (or components of a PC), and that's how we are managing around the different component price increases," Maher said. Dell executives are likely to address increasing component costs at the company's annual meeting with financial analysts in New York next week, he added. ...con't at link.............

To: rudedog who wrote (96656)	4/1/2002 12:30:29 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

rudedog, I've been involved in my fair share of PC business discussions. I am no cherry. Twisting the arm of a supplier, or having my arm twisted for a better deal is fair game. The playing field is not always level. That is just a fact of life. Using financial leverage to twist the arms of shareholders is a different matter. The law frowns on that activity. HWP and CPQ are both dead in the water for the next couple of years no matter what WW does. WW is just an excuse at this point. NW

To: rudedog who wrote (96656)	4/1/2002 12:47:58 PM
From: The Duke of URL©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

internetnews.com Do you have any specific interpretation of what Gazerwitz is saying or is this just meaningless platitude? If cpq was not selling them as expected why kick them out of the line up, just leave the 7000 as an alternative? May 1, 2001 \| Business News Archives Unisys Digests Compaq's Rejection of ES7000 By Christine Gordon Unisys confirmed today that Compaq Computer Corp. has rejected selling its 32 Intel Corp. processor CMP computers, ES7000. Compaq began shipping the Unisys Cellular Multiprocessing (CMP) server under the Proliant ML770 name earlier this year. But the company said corporate clients favored running data centers that operated off of eight-processor systems. Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys had counted on cashing in on a business strategy that required other companies to sell its products under their own names. Hewlett-Packard and Dell were among several companies that signed on to the program, but several weeks ago HP backed away from its decision to sell the CMP server. The CMP server is designed to meet future IA-64 Intel Itanium processor power needs. With 96 I/O channels and processor access to 64GB of memory the ES7000 server is capable of executing numerous transactions against large transaction databases. The ES7000 is the most powerful server available to run Microsoft's Windows 2000 Datacenter Server software. George Gazerwitz, president, Unisys Systems & Technology blamed the downturn in computer sales with putting Compaq in a difficult position of choosing between selling the ES7000 or devoting cash to other needs. "CMP has proven itself to be the only viable scale-up solution for the Windows 2000 Datacenter Server environment, most effectively handling large databases and offering great advantages for server consolidation. We understand that in this difficult economic environment, companies must make choices to focus their limited resources," he said. Compaq did not return calls for comment. Gazerwitz said the company would focus on the Intel server market and would add more than 200 new CMP sales and technical support positions to serve that space. Hitachi Ltd. and ICL, a British unit of Fujitsu Ltd. continue to sell the Unisys' CMP systems.