“IDC has released its first quarter PC market share figures, and for the first time in recent memory, it’s not smooth sailing for Dell. Overall, it was a good quarter. PC shipments rose 12.9 percent from the same quarter in 2005, with the growth occurring worldwide. The big winners for the quarter were HP and Gateway. HP’s gains are to be expected, given that it has been battling Dell for the number one market share position for the last several years. Gateway is a bigger surprise.”
Is time to consider AMD CPUs for Dell.
Time to consider a new plateform! My dell is a piece of junk!
Remember Gateway bought EMachines from IBM and now they have computers in Best Buy. I am still looking at HP for my next laptop, I just think they have more character than Dell’s
…since when did IBM own eMachines?
Lenovo used to belong to IBM. EMachines used to be a separate company that got their start for bundling free chintzy computers with 2 year contracts for internet access.
If Tech Support is a criteria in your purchase I would look hard before going HP. From my experiences and those of others I know who work on computers for a living I would rate their support pretty low. Just my experiences and others have probably had better luck. One tech I know swears by eMachines since the Gateway purchase.
I am still looking at HP for my next laptop, I just think they have more character
I recently bought several computers for work: cheap Compaq and HP desktops and Gateway and Toshiba tablets (no monoculture, harder to maintain. There were reasons though).
The HP and Compaq were basically identical (same case, different branding). No surprise there, same company and all that.
I uninstalled at least 50 shovelware apps from each machine before dumping them in the office. The two tablets were much less encumbered, with the Gateway perhaps having a slight edge. Maybe that’s just because the cheaper machines come with more add-ons to help keep the cost down.. might just be the price one pays.
Anyway, I’m a little less enamoured of HP now that they and Compaq are one, and their machines are identical.
I still feel that building your own PC is the proper way to go if you have the skills.
Choose which motherboard, cpu, memory manufacturer, video gpu etc YOU want, not try to pick which bundle gets the closest to your needs.
PC Building should pretty much be taught as a high school subject along with home economics and woodwork now days.
It would be nice to piece together a system, but I now prefer something that works out of the box.. I’ve got work to do and I really don’t need to spend the time choosing specific HW, finding the best prices and finally building a machine.
Just my Opinion, but then… I’m not an admin or programmer… I’m a stinkin’ designer/musician
Jb
I’ll do it for you!
———–PC Building should pretty much be taught as a high school subject along with home economics and woodwork now days.————
I shudder to think about the results, thought the intent sounds nice and peachy.
For decades now the education system has been so woefully inept in the area of economics, if they taught pc building I’m confident in saying that things would get worse, not better.(though I agree, building your own is by far the best way to go)
The only thing the school system is efficient at teaching these days is A) “you’re a victim” and B) new and creative ways to hate bush and/or conservatives.
Neocons don’t need any help to be hated, just crawling out from under their rock and exposing their actual intent is all that’s required.
Politics of hatred really are off topic for this website.
If you want to hate people… Find a Liberal Forum somewhere and indulge yourself.
Many of us don’t want to read that. Thanks!
I agree with you. 110%. They don’t need any help, they dig their own holes very well. But that isn’t stopping the agenda of the school system from helping out.
While I do think if your a techie, it is important to understand what makes up a PC and all of that, I cringe at the thought of actually building out any quantity of systems.
It has been quite a long time since building a computer really made economic sense. The amount of time to acquire the components, assemble the components, burn in the system, load/test the software image, etc is just not worth it. On top of this, once completed, you don’t have a single system warranty.
It does make economic sense if you take into account the following:
– it’s fun
– you’ll learn
If that adds up to more benefit than the exra cost, that makes perfect sense from an economic point of view. However i think the fun and learning only apply the first time, maybe the fun will not apply at all to some
p.s.: I think Citybank downrated Dell to sell today and the stock price dropped quite a bit.
Oh and as far as the pricing goes (and the 2 people here that said they actualy lose money), I guess they use this business modell:
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=135
😉
Edited 2006-04-21 19:50
Heck yes. Building your own or going to a local custom computer place is definately the best way to go. Alienwares are way over priced and stuff like HP or Compaq are pure crap. As bad as Dell can be sometimes, IMO, they are still better than the crap you will find at Best Buy or CompUSA. Apple is probably the ONLY good computer you will find in a major retail chain.
EDIT
====
Dells are good for those that need a basic system and only want to spend $300 or so. In that situation, its pretty hard to build a system yourself for so cheap using new parts.
Edited 2006-04-22 04:55
…maybe with their recent Alienware purchase they’ll regain some lost marketshare, at least in the high-end sector, where the big bucks are spent.
My boss got a call from Dell because he took advantage of an extremely good deal and bought about 40 computers. Apparently Dell got upset because these systems were meant for individuals not companies and were being sold at a loss. They were intended to get upgraded by the purchasers as well… He has been literally cut off from purchasing anymore Dells…
Why buy Dell, other than because of extemely cheap commodity PCs now that Apple has breached the gap? Well, Dell bought Alienware to get the upper market, and it may actually help them… realistically, since I am a Mac user through and through, I have always bough Apple and have been thoroughly satisfied. I have been known to buy some PCs for other various reasons, but now, geez I have NO reason. Apple provides the machine that can do it all… OS X, Windose, Linux and even Solaris. The prices are not as costly as the common myth.
I can now have it all
IMHO Jb
I find that difficult to believe…
A company knows that a deal is a deal. And NO intelligent company sells at a loss in the Computer Market. No way.
And certainly, no company fighting for market share is going to “cut off” a potential customer.
Sorry, but I don’t believe this story.
You may not believe, but it is true. Dell’s technique is to introduce you to a system then upgrade your CD/DVD etc. At my company we weren’t interested in all the upgrades they offer, after buying a ‘quantity’ through one Name/credit card Dell actually called.
This is true and if you don’t believe, I’m sorry.
Jb
I’ve bought a lot of hardware from Dell, and usually without upgrading the advertised configuration. Sometimes, I’ve DOWNGRADED it because I can get the same upgrades cheaper locally.
I’ve NEVER had Dell call me and say “Hey! No Fair! You made us lose money on the system, and we’ll NEVER sell to you again.”
That would be foolish.
I would give some credence to it as a friend of mine leased several Dells for his business several years back. Much to my surprise Dell gave him nothing but trouble when he had to deal with them. And I had owned several Dells over the years and had good luck when dealing with them. I was very surprised at the trouble he had.
While I don’t know the full circumstances of the OP, I had a similar experience. I talked with a Dell sales rep (order taker?) and he ended up setting up a deal for 35 computers using a Dell “outrageous deal” that was limit qty 5. He effectively created 7 separate orders so the discount would apply. After wasting about a week of “processing” he comes back and claims the order is no good (too much loss), has another rep contact me (manager? supervisor? who knows..) and emails me a quote for ~60% more than what I was originally quoted. hah..
So what I don’t understand is why they would sell me 5 computers at that price but not 35. According to them, I could buy 5 computers each week for 7 weeks and be ok, but not 35 all at once.. I don’t get it.
As far as cutting off a potential customer — well while they haven’t come out and said that, they did lose even the right to quote on 500 computer sales due to the pathetic handling of this particular order.
And it will continue to drop until they start shipping with Linux installed.
Suns very bold ad campaign designed to smear dell and “rhymes with hell” don’t help them much:
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/rejected/index.html
Those are some of the best computer adverts I’ve ever seen.
You get a point for providing, what I think, is probably one of the most hilarious adverts I’ve seen in a long time!
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/rejected/Centerfold_back_ALL_Lores.pdf
(scroll to page 3 for the bareback pictures, classic!)
Why doesn’t SUN promote this stuff more and more!
Their products are TOP NOTCH!
You mean I’m not getting a dell?
I one day decided I needed more ram. My system specs that I picked out and in the manual specified 40 ns memory, so of course that is what I purchased to add to my system. When I opened the case once my new memory arrived, I discovered that the memory Dell installed was 45 ns even though all the specs (including talking to a tech support/customer service person with Dell) said it was 40 ns. That really pissed me off. That speaks volumes of the lack of quality control that they have. Additionally, the software that they gave me with my system was incorrect. I specified that I want Earthlink’s software package not AOL (ideally I would select “none” but that wasn’t an option).
I have a long list of complaints about my Dell and other Dells that others have bought including those we ordered for work.
For instance, my wife and I bought laptops this year. She got a Dell (the university she teaches at basicallly told her that either she can get a Dell or pay for it herself) and I bought a PowerBook. She got to place the order for the Dell herself so that it met her specs so it would meet her research needs and the university paid. When the Dell arrived there was a long list of problems that were just flat out wrong.
1. Productivity software was wrong.
2. Wrong antivirus
3. Wrong video card
4. Wrong wifi
5. Oh yeah…WRONG MODEL!!!
Dell insisted that everything was just peachy. Since it had the two things she was most concerned with (Ram and CPU) she just decided to not bother complaining anymore and kept the system. In about 2 months a few keys on her keyboard stopped working correctly (I think it was Q and E that first showed problems).
Another interesting case is a grad student I know. He started grad school 4 years ago. At that time he bought a brand new Dell laptop. After 1 year, while he was working on a dataset, a puff of smoke came out the back and the system died. He called Dell and they had him ship it back. They told him that the warranty would not cover the fried system because he had a cat and that cat hair required regular cleaning of the fans. He decided, “ok…my bad, I’ll just eat it and get a new one.” He did. A year later, Dell number 2 cooks itself, this time no cat hair. They still wouldn’t help him. Subsequently he has chosen not to buy another Dell and has instead gone with Compaq. He is quite happy.
Another grad student I know, decided to buy a Dell desktop about a year ago. About 2-3 months after it arrived, the power supply fan started making a really loud whine (I forgot to mention I had someething similar with my Dell). He called and they said they would ship the parts (they decided to ship him a new power supply) to fix it and arrange for a technician to come in and fix the problem. A few days after the call, the parts arrived (2 boxes) and then a few days after that the technician came in. The tech opened the boxes that were shipped. They were the wrong parts, namely they were both CPU fans and heat sinks.
I genuinely think that Dell probably has some of the worst quality control on the planet. I will NEVER buy another Dell and whenever someone I know is looking for a computer now, i let them know the stories that I’ve heard and experienced. They are usually grateful because shortly after talking to them they buy from another company, get a compy they like and hear stories from others about the garbage Dell ships with computer labels on them.
It is things like this that have resulted in Dell’s share slipping. They sell pure crap with crappy service. Dell’s assumption is that if they ship one or two things that don’t fit the requested specs, that nobody will notice. The trouble is that they are often shipping to companies or universities where a sys admin will be the first to see the computer and find that it doesn’t exactly match the order placed. Dell has only kept the market share they have by working out deals with large institutions and low prices for the unaware.
I’m glad to see Dell’s sales slip.
and I mean that whole-heartedly. In the home desktop market they prey on the ignorance of the average consumer, selling rinky proprietary near impossible to upgrade unless you order the parts from them machines that if you’ve ever opened one of their recent machines as a technician, the impression of layout and design is akin to the Packard Bells of the early 90’s.
Overpriced, underpowered, bloated with crapplets and a limited upgrade path… and they wonder why they are losing share. RIGHT.
I mean, we’re talking about a company that lists the EXACT SAME DVD RW drive in six different spots in their online shop at prices ranging from $80 to $190 depending on the rails it comes with and which of their ‘models of the week’ it’s supposed to go into. (which is funny since the ‘dell’ branded drive is likely a $40 lite-on)
In the home desktop market they prey on the ignorance of the average consumer, selling rinky proprietary near impossible to upgrade unless you order the parts from them
————–
A buddy of mine picked up some RAM from Best Buy and it worked great in his Dell. IMO, HP is the worst when it comes to upgrading.