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

To: D. Plen who wrote (93819)	2/2/1999 1:55:00 AM
From: Yamakita	Respond to of 176387

Dell's business model is IDEALLY suited for colored boxes. This isn't brain surgery: one would order a color as an option, just like ordering how much ram you want, what size monitor, etc. How much extra could it cost the suppliers to mix up some polymers and coat the boxes? People should be able to order a color that fits into the scheme of their room. Why hasn't this been done before? If GM, fer chrissakes, can do it, Dell ought be able to offer all 256 colors on the palette! I want my burnt sienna Dell!!!

To: D. Plen who wrote (93819)	2/2/1999 6:23:00 AM
From: Kenneth Aird	Respond to of 176387

I have been wondering how Apple does it with the iMac. At the local CompUSA they have one demo unit of each of the 5 colors on the shelf, but no units available for sale. I asked the clerk at the cash register if this was how Apple handles the inventory problem of multiple colors and she said "we haven't got them in yet". Apple claimed to have only 2 days of iMac inventory at the close of the quarter, but that may just have been due to running down the inventory of the old model. At least for now I think color appeals much more to the consumer segment than business, if only because business PCs are usually bought by the information technology department based on business oriented criteria like total cost of ownership, support etc. Now for a confession. I bought an iMac when they first came out. I justified it on the basis of price performance and the fact that it would be easy to move with a handle and only two cables. My wife frequently rearranges the furniture and I have moved her computers up and down stairs too many times. I also wanted to see what the Apple consumer experience was like since AAPL had already run up on the basis of iMac sales and my wife had talked about buying some stock in the company. My only hesitation was the problem of running PC software, and I thought that was taken care of by the fact that Virtual PC software lets you run Windows on an iMac (any version of Windows. It actually emulates a Pentium PC and PC peripherals to the register level). But I realized later that the thing that really made me buy was the design. Color alone won't cut it. Lots of PCs have had colors other than beige for some time (although not a choice of 5), without notable success. Witness Sony and Toshiba. IMHO just adding more colors to Dells Volvo style case will not attract many more consumers. In case you are wondering what happened to the iMac, my wife made me sell it because Virtual PC was too complicated for her and would not run at the same time as Mac applications without adding more memory. Her main application besides a browser is PC-Quote, which does not have a Mac version. Also the Mac version of Internet Explorer can't handle many web sites which use active X features that only run on Intel machines. I discovered that the 500 applications Steve Jobs claimed to be available were mostly useless (to me) utility programs, games and desktop publishing applications. Worst of all the operating system was just about as buggy as Windows 95. Despite all this I am sure the 5 new fruit flavors will sell a ton of machines to new PC users, many of whom will be completely satisfied since all they really want to do is surf the web. Now my wife won't let me buy anything but Dell, so the next time I want to buy a PC that is easy to move around the house it will be an Inspiron 7000. Ken