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

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (26521)	5/23/1998 10:20:00 PM
From: hitesh puri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Eddie, you hit the nail on the head. There is no major price advantage that Dell has anymore. And yes, you do have to pay sales tax on Dell purchases which in my opinion disables the major reason for buying direct. In terms of bundled software you cannot beat Compaq because of its #1 position and hence leverage power it gets great deals for OEM software. It will take a little while but people wil see the light. After 6-7 months of stumbling Compaq's BTO system is falling in place and Dell will have to seriously justify their high multiple. People are already questioning it now. -hitesh

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (26521)	5/23/1998 10:58:00 PM
From: Maxer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Eddie- Right! Dell has no price advantage. But among professionals they have a very good reputation for QUALITY. Any manager is not going to hesitate to spend more if he believes he will have a machine that will require less LABOR to keep it running right. Compaq I guess makes good desktops (their laptops seem a little rickety). Word on the street is that Dell's quality is #1. And the pros who have the responsibility to buy machines and keep them running are not going to take chances. I think that Compaq's BTO strategy will fall on it's face because they are aiming at joe citizen. He doesn't know a hard drive from a virtural drive. Why have a BTO for joe? Why not have the BTO on the INTERNET? That's were the BTO customers are lurking. This ain't any mystery, Mr. Watson. CPQ should be aiming at the top of the pros (like Dell) and they will pick up joe citizen because he's going to look at what the pros are buying. Actually they do this with servers, but we can't see that. A good place for a campaign to start--- "Why does the NYSE rely on Compaq..." Think of it like cameras. Canon and Nikon are the top pro cameras. Because of this their lines of sub $300 consumer cameras are thought to have better quality then the Fuji and other cheaper cameras. But they don't. Now I know that some of you will jump all over me for this, saying that they're all the same, which might be correct. But I'm talking about the potential customer's PERCEPTION of the name COMPAQ brand. What does CPQ do to improve that?

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (26521)	5/25/1998 1:00:00 AM
From: SC	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 97611

Compare Delll and Compaq's latest Pentium II PCs by PC Magazine links below. <<Am I missing something here? Where's Dell's huge price advantage?>> Here is the answer your question on Dell's price advantage: higher price (advantage fo Dell) relative to enhanced performances and quality (advantagve for customers). Their pricing advantage is "PRICE/PERFORMANCE", but they try to create demands for their products by quality and higher performance rather than the cheapest prices at low or no profit. Here is the latest example: Take at a look at the two Pentium II 400 MHz PCs reviewed here on PC Magazine. Dell has the highest performances and highest price among the reviewed PC makers. Compaq has next to last performance at medium price. Gateway got best buy. I am not saying that this review will mean very much. It just confirms what Dell has been saying about their strategy and how they have succeeded in creating demands for their PCs at a higher price and profit so far, not to mention their enhanced reputation for quality in hardware and services. Remember Dell's official said that each time they have the latest products with the latest technologies and enhanced performance, the demands in their products "spike". Compare the following, which one would you buy if you are not trying to buy low cost PCs because you are on a tight budget? Review Dell's machine: zdnet.com Review for Compaq's machine: zdnet.com