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

To: Catcher who wrote (96625)	2/10/1999 12:06:00 AM
From: musea	Respond to of 176387

Catcher, 2 big reasons for remaining 60% of households to buy computer now (i-net) putting my money on dell. figure they will attract lions share of households seeking to upgrade as well. of above competitors only cpq seems a threat... unlikely that newcomer poses threat. am i missing a key competitor? For the home market? White boxes or shift to appliances other than PCs. Both are areas to keep an eye on. In the corporate sphere I agree with you. I just put together two of those white boxes. They aren't bad at all - lots of features and speed. As good as a Dell? Not even close in quality. Does it matter? I don't know yet. Cheaper than a similarly-configured Dell? By about 50%. Is it the cheap appliance of the future? Not until someone figures out how to configure them so customers don't have to (something that Dell has figured out). I bet that it won't get there - the cheap internet appliance of the future probably won't look much like a PC. Will Dell figure out the shift in direction and do something about it? I bet he will figure it out, but whether he decides to go after it is another question. He's very focused. -musea

To: Catcher who wrote (96625)	2/10/1999 12:43:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Catcher, I still view GTW as the biggest potential threat. My reasoning is as follows: First, GTW has been in the business of direct sales for some time. They know how to do it and they put together a high quality machine. Second, they have been hiring some Dell people for high level executive positions, so they are bolstering their know how. But those issues don't add up to much of a threat yet, because GTW has decided not to go head to head with Dell and CPQ in the business market. The threat that I see is that GTW can be purchased by a company that has been having trouble shifting to direct sales (like any of Dell's competitors), and then use the GTW brand to sidesteps the problems the indirect sellers have been having with their resellers. I foresee the computer industry shaking out as follows: we will have two indirect sellers (DELL and ???) dominating the business market and selling a significant amount to the knowledgeable home computerist. We will have two indirect sellers who will be battling it out for the first time buyer. We will have the whitebox (Mom and Pop stores) who will be selling to hobbyists and small businesses, but I expect the whitebox market share to decrease in the coming years. But I should warn you that I make a terrible Gypsy fortune teller. TTFN, CTC