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

To: NickSE who wrote (27895)	6/19/1998 10:56:00 PM
From: Windseye	Respond to of 97611

NExt we'll have the all purpose channel assembler (Techdata among others?) able to BTO, CTO, or whateverm ANY of the big box makers... CPQ, IBM, HP, Gateway, DELL. It won't matter... the components are likely to be highly similar (if not identical in many cases) or functionally identical. What will the real differences be among these companies and boxes then? Warranties? Service plans? Buy backs? Lease plans? I suspect the critical circuit board differences will be so hidden the market will be unable to detect them... true commoditization. This would leave CPQ in a better position as the all purpose supplier-- from pseudo-white boxes all the way up to complex fault tolerant enterprise systems. This does bode well for CPQ, but it may mean that producing boxes at a reasonably competitive price is only a NECESSARY but not sufficient condition for successful earnings in the coming quarters. Doug