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

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (172680)	4/30/2003 1:23:20 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Dell, Sunnyvale Firm to Work on Handheld THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, April 30, 2003 · Last updated 6:12 a.m. PT SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Dell Computer Corp. and Good Technology Inc. will work together on designing a new wireless handheld for corporate customers, the companies announced. The Dell-branded product, expected to be completed next year, would run Good's wireless messaging system. Meanwhile, Dell, which began selling its own Microsoft Pocket PC-based handhelds in November, said Tuesday that it would begin selling Good's G100 wireless messaging device. Demand from Dell customers to provide Good's device and wireless messaging service led to the deal, said Tony Banadero, a marketing director at Dell. The alliance with the Round Rock, Texas-based computer giant marks a significant coup for Good, a Sunnyvale-based startup competing with Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry e-mail pagers. The messaging device market has been sluggish, hovering at roughly 500,000 users, but with Dell expanding into that arena, perhaps that will soon change, said Danny Shader, president and CEO of Good. The marketing and technology deal is not exclusive, Banadero said. Dell, which already sells RIM BlackBerry devices, could choose to work with RIM on a new product as well, he said. seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (172680)	5/1/2003 10:51:51 AM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Old PCs Don't Fade Away, Much to Chagrin of Industry... By KEVIN J. DELANEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Foster Wheeler Power Group Inc. used to replace its staff's 3,000 computers every two to four years. But these days the Clinton, N.J., power-industry-services company is finding it can eke out four to five years before tossing them. That is allowing the company to slash its budget for replacement computers by 25% to 50% for 2003. Corporate belt-tightening has put the pinch on purchases of personal computers by companies world-wide. Sales of PCs to businesses have remained flat at roughly 87 million units annually since 2000, according to research group IDC. PC makers have been hoping for a burst of replacement buying as a result. IDC estimates global PC sales to businesses will rise 6.5% this year. Both International Business Machines Corp. and U.S. chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. say they are starting to see a pickup in corporate PC buying so far this year. But a growing number of firms say they don't need to renew their PC fleets as often as they used to. That is sobering news for the industry, since businesses buy roughly two-thirds of all PCs. Suppliers of computers and peripheral equipment grew used to companies replacing laptops every two years and desktops within three years, as a rule of thumb. In the late 1990s, PC replacements in anticipation of year-2000 problems helped boost sales. World-wide business-PC purchases rose 43% from 1997 to 2000, according to IDC. The industry has buzzed about a possible new flood of PC buying as companies replace the now-aging machines they bought in the late '90s. But such hopes have dissipated, and analysts, hardware makers and the companies themselves are saying any wave likely will be more spread out. An important reason is that companies are junking the three-year-life cycle rule. British American Tobacco PLC says it is extending the life of its roughly 30,000 PCs by one year on average, to at least four years. The French food and water company Groupe Danone, which has about 21,000 PCs in offices around the world, is doing the same. Advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, a unit of Britain's WPP Group PLC, says it plans to extend the life of its roughly 9,000 PCs and has put buying on hold so far in 2003, to better target its replacements. At the Harvard Medical School and its hospitals in Massachusetts, PCs remain in service for 5.5 years on average. The school and hospitals spend about $1 million on new PCs a year and recently named IBM as exclusive supplier under a broader Harvard contract. "If what you need to do is run Microsoft Word, for example, or Internet Explorer or the browser of your choice, it's OK to have a five-year-old computer," says John Halamka, the chief information officer who oversees the 12,000 PCs at the medical school and hospitals. The computer makers, naturally, are advising against the current trend. "You get into situations where you're penny-wise and pound-foolish," says Peter Hortensius, a general manager at IBM's Personal Systems Group. "A cost of a PC is about 20% to buy it and 80% to own it." Mr. Hortensius says PCs are more expensive to support and repair as they get older. "It's time to get started again on the upgrade cycle," agrees Roger Kay, director of client computing with IDC in Framingham, Mass. He says security problems with old software, PC component breakdowns and increased staff productivity from faster PCs are among the reasons companies should start buying more frequently. But many companies say they will hold off anyway. PC makers "are doing too good a job for their own good," says Victor Salicetti, global information-technology services director at Foster Wheeler Power Group, some of whose hardware is holding up after five years of use. The employees who use the aging machines are hardly up in arms. Richard Parker, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, says he doesn't know how old his desktop is. (The tech staff says it is more than three years old.) But Dr. Parker says the machine can handle e-mailing, Web browsing, viewing of digital X-ray files and other major tasks. "I'm not clamoring for anything," he says. Write to Kevin J. Delaney at kevin.delaney@wsj.com Updated May 1, 2003