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

To: edamo who wrote (118652)	4/19/1999 9:33:00 AM
From: David Harker	Respond to of 176387

All - did anyone else see Joe Kernan talking about CPQ vs. Dell, this morning? He put up a 3-yr comparison chart of cpq vs. dell stock, and said something like: "and here's another thing, looks like Dell not only ate CPQ's lunch, but if you look at that orange line (cpq's nearly flat stock price line on the graph) you'll see that Dell ate their breakfast, lunch, dinner AND between-meal snacks in the last few years". Best thing Joe's ever said, it was priceless. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

To: edamo who wrote (118652)	4/19/1999 12:22:00 PM
From: stock bull	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Edamo, I believe the pc is being classified as a commodity because all the pc makers offer the same thing. Dell's pc is really no different that Cpq's, who's no different than Gtw, etc. All the pc's perform the same functions. The variable left are price, delivery and service. Today, pricing and delivery is about the same for all the manufacturers. The big variable, IMO, is service. I don't think the issue of configurations really enters into the commodity issue. Reason, all the manufacturers offer the same configurations. Given what I said, I guess the auto would be considered a commodity. The question that I have is...who wants to offer a definition of the term "commodity". One that fits the tech situation. Stock Bull

To: edamo who wrote (118652)	4/20/1999 1:17:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Ed - I think Chuz has done an excellent job of detailing the issues surrounding CPQ's use of the channel - They basically need to perform a heart and lung operation on a running man. They need to build an infrastructure which can do configure to order at low cost, while at the same time shifting their distribution away from the indirect model which generates 50% of their revenue. The shift over to a revenue model where PCs play only a small part is the only way this can be accomplished without bloodshed, and as we have seen it is easier said than done. As far as the "commodity" issue goes - PCs are less differentiated now than they were 5 or 10 years ago. DELL has made a great business by having good but not great products, but delivered with great quality, efficiency and as ordered by the customer. From this standpoint, commoditization affects them less than the other vendors - DELL's brand is associated more with the customer experience than the hardware features. DELL has done a great job of setting high expectations in this regard and delivering on them, and this brand identity can survive almost any shift in the underlying hardware configuration. It is also a brand which can be ported more easily to other products than a pure product play would do. In some ways this is almost the Lexus play - build a good car with great quality, and then assure that every aspect of the ownership cycle from sales to service to eventual upgrade is in a class by itself. I own a Lexus and the best part of the ownership to me is the absolute absence of hassle or disappointment in dealing with the company.