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

To: JRI who wrote (113213)	3/29/1999 3:03:00 PM
From: Eggolas Moria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

John, I'll probably move away from the emachine postings now as a matter of course. The information is now out there and people can decide for themselves how to interpret it. When the IPO is filed, there will probably be a specific thread on the company. I'll agree that for now, eMachines is not a competitive threat to Dell. But, for now, we're going to disagree on the significance of emachines accomplishments and what it might mean for Dell. If in the next six months you see Dell begin moving product into much lower price points (not the sub-$600 level though) and being more competitive in those product offerings, then I'll claim a measure of satisfaction in having brought the information to this thread in the manner I did. Then we can revisit issues of revenues, gross margins and ASP's. If Dell doesn't react in the manner I anticipate, then I'll probably chalk it up to being wrong in my estimation of the significance of this nascent movement.

To: JRI who wrote (113213)	3/29/1999 3:56:00 PM
From: Meathead	Read Replies (12) \| Respond to of 176387

eMachines... Where's the value? I think the low cost is illusionary. The savings does not amount to much in reality... in fact, it can be argued the the eMachine 333i costs more than the Dell 333V would within the first week of ownership. For example the eM 333i costs $499 which is "(System alone, after rebate. Rebate coupons are only available through participating authorized retailers* ". The Dell 333V is $999. To approach the eM configuration you must remove the Dell 15" monitor ($200), Windows98 ($100), speakers ($25), extra 1G of HD space and a few other Dell hardware niceties (that aren't important to bargain hunters so we'll attach a value of ~$25). Now the cost of the Dell box alone comes to about $659. A whopping difference of $160. That's still too much many would say. Well, look closer at the value equation. Installing Windows98 and any software to the bare hard drive on the eMachine is a pain-in-the-ass... almost impossible for a first time buyer. How many hours will this take? Service? 1.877.566.e4me (a long-distance charge maybe applied, depening on your calling area) (available from 8 am to midnight CST 7 days a week)15 days free telephone installation assistance (a long distance charge may be applied depending on your calling area) For calls after 15 days, telephone support is charged at $20 per incident. How much is Dell's 24/7 year round toll free support worth? What if your machine breaks? Dell will send a technician personally to your house to fix or replace any component for one year after purchase. With eM, you can experience the joy of repacking your system and sending it cross country. How long would you be without a machine? Who wants to store those big boxes in their garage for 2-3 years? What's that worth? There are also many other subtle quality differences in chassis design, plastics, power delivery, keyboard, noise levels etc. that bargain hunters probably don't care about but they add up. Can someone really save that much assembling their system piecewise and foregoing the quality/support/warranties? Doubtful... you'd have to be pretty lucky cause one hiccup and your penny wise and pound foolish value equation winds up in the ditch. I'm not necessarily saying the eMachines are bad or that they won't have plenty of interested buyers. It's just that when you do the math, they don't look like such a bargain anymore. MEATHEAD