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

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (31664)	8/27/1998 2:26:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

OK I'll pour myself a spot of 18 yr old McCallen and relax for a moment... usually it's the dog who's out of breath and the cat who does the grinning.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (31664)	8/27/1998 2:43:00 AM
From: FR1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

I note one item that is not covered in these conversations and that is point of purchase sales. If I am a freshman college student and I need a computer, I am probably going to go to the school store and touch one. I am standing there at the store and looking at a CPQ 330, trying out the programs, listening to the stereo speakers and I can see this is what I want. It is more than fast enough for all my needs (I am not rendering a sequence in Toy Story). A friend tells me I can get a DELL 400 for the same price by mail order. Slightly more speed is probably not the decision making item. Service and knowing what you got probably is. I can walk home with this machine today and be back this afternoon if anything goes wrong. Oh yeah, it is true that DELL's prices get around by word of mouth - so does word of their 35% or so DOA computers. The word is that DELL screws them together and ships them real quick. The customer acts as the bench tech that burns in the assembled computer and replaces the bad boards, etc. I own both stocks but pretending that computer stores are history and they are all going to be out of business tomorrow is just not reality.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (31664)	8/27/1998 1:46:00 PM
From: Geoff Nunn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Drew and Chuz, The Wall Street Journal today ran an ad by Compaq DirectPlus. Inadvertently, it seems to bear out CPQ's lengthy inventory lag which you suggested. The ad features a CPQ Deskpro P-II 266, a business PC priced at $1399. I called CPQ and was told that this PC only comes with W-95. It does provide a $29 upgrade coupon. Hmmm... Windows 98 was officially launched on June 20th. On or about that date, Dell did a 100% transition to Win 98 on all its desktop systems. Presumably CPQ did as well. The fact that this is a W-95 PC, and has only a P-266 processor, suggests it was manufactured prior to June 20th. That would mean it has been sitting around in someone's inventory for at least 9 weeks. According to CPQ, if purchased today there would be a wait of 7-10 days to receive the PC. When this figure is added, the time from the date of manufacture to the PC reaching the consumer will have been a minimum of 75 days. Summary: This PC appears to have been manufactured nearly 11 weeks ago or perhaps even longer. I don't claim this is indicative of CPQ efficiency. Nonetheless, it does seem to support the conclusion that CPQ doesn't have its inventory situation under control. Geoff