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

To: Sig who wrote (172133)	1/13/2003 8:29:27 AM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Bill Shope at JP Morgan cut DELL from overweight to neutral this morning.

To: Sig who wrote (172133)	1/13/2003 10:10:00 AM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

More on the cash register venture. Round Rock company offering cash registers based on desktop PCs By John Pletz AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Monday, January 13, 2003 Cha-ching! Dell Computer Corp. is getting into the cash-register business. The company said it's now selling a personal-computer-based cash-register system to retailers, taking on IBM Corp. and NCR Corp., the Dayton, Ohio, company that practically created the register business when it was known as National Cash Register. Dell will begin marketing the product to retailers today at the National Retail Federation trade show in New York. It's Dell's latest effort to find new sales amid a continued slowdown in corporate computer buying and, over the longer term, to reach its goal of doubling the company's revenue to about $65 billion annually. In the past two years, Dell has begun selling network switches and personal digital assistants. It also teamed up with EMC Corp. in data storage and is partnering with Lexmark International Inc. to launch a line of printers this year. The move into cash registers isn't much of stretch for Dell. In the past decade, cash registers began to resemble personal computers more than traditional registers. In fact, the term cash register is passé. Today, it's called a point-of-sale terminal. The commercial personal computer that is the heart of the register system is made in Austin. Dell doesn't expect to add workers for the new business line because the system is based on a basic desktop computer platform. The Wet Seal Inc., a Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based clothing retailer, runs checkout counters in more than 600 stores nationwide on simple Dell PCs running the same Microsoft software that powers most desktop computer networks. "All you need is a simple scanner, standard keyboard and a PC, a cash drawer and a receipt printer," said Ron Hunt, the company's operations manager. The Wet Seal was Dell's test project for cash registers. Hunt said he picked Dell over IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. because its PCs were less expensive, had better cooling systems and had longer warranties. He didn't even consider specialized cash registers from NCR and IBM. "You'd spend $5,000 to $10,000 for a dedicated register from IBM or NCR," he said. "We're spending a fraction of that. This is great for mom and pops, to put something together that's reliable and state of the art without spending a lot of money." Dell sees cash registers as a way to grab just one more piece of what it estimates to be a $10 billion market for computer spending by retailers. NCR, for example, sells more than $1 billion worth of cash registers, scanners and related products each year. But Dell is the world's largest seller of PCs, and it counts 19 of the 20 biggest U.S. retailers among its customers. "We're already very strong in the back office and corporate headquarters of these companies," Dell spokesman Jon Weisblatt said. "This is the next logical step." It also could be a more profitable business for Dell. The average selling price of a PC configured as a cash register is in the mid-$2,000 range. That's higher than the $1,700 average selling price of all Dell equipment and about triple the cost of the average desktop PC for general use. Dell said it will partner with established vendors for the software, cash drawers, scanners, touch screens and other devices required to turn a PC into a cash register. Dell also will provide the PCs and servers that link the individual registers together and installation services, if needed. "It makes perfect sense," said Roger Kay, an analyst at industry researcher IDC, which anticipates that worldwide PC sales will increase 8 percent this year after two years of decline or minimal growth. "Dell could bring the same thing to this market it brings to every other market: lower prices through commoditization. It's less far-fetched than some of the other ventures they've talked about." TP