We buy low-end Dimensions (Dimension 3100's) for our developers. I get
them with 2GB of RAM, load my Windows image + VMware Workstation on
them, and send them on their way.
So far, 0 failures. I could give a rats ass if they have cheap power
supplies. None have failed, and even if one did, a Dell tech would be
here the next day with a replacement. For less than $1000 I am getting a
3ghz P4 EM64T, 80gb SATA drive, 2GB of RAM, 17" LCD, WinXP, and MS
Office Basic Edition, with a 2 year on-site warranty. That's including
tax and shipping. My developers don't need anything better.
Dell only keeps about 7 days worth of inventory on hand. Those 40gb
drives in their machines rolled off a truck sometime the week that
system was built. Dell has no warehouses with inventory. I am sure they
have parts on hand to fix broken machines, but that's about it. It's
cheaper for Dell to optimize their supply chain than keep inventory on hand.
http://www.tmi.umich.edu/dell.pdf
I find supply chain management and logistics very interesting.
The printer market isn't a bad one to be in. OEM the components from
Lexmark, then sell the ink online. Just like every other company now,
the profit on the printer comes from the ink. It's almost like free
money. As long as the amount of money it takes to manage that supply
chain is less than the profit the chain makes, then it's a good decision
for them to make. Bad for the HP's and Epson's of the world, but hey,
it's a free market.
[Chris Reeves]
One thing that I want to point out, though is that dell's newer "cheap"
boxes really are POS. I find almost nothing to separate them out from
eMachines. They are basically uber-cheap boxes with low end power supplies,
bargain basement ram, no software to speak of except piled up with
advertisement ware (Earthlink 6 Months!, AOL Six Months! And so forth) and
basically discontinued HDDs. What the hell is Dell doing shipping any box
with a 40GB HDD right now? Except eliminating inventory.
That's Dell's issue. They've built up a fair inventory and debt that they
are going to struggle with. Screw the batteries, it's the ability to pawn
off all the old PentiumD processors they are holding at a price that doesn't
make them eat their lunch. It's the ability to flog warehouses of HDDs,
CDRW/DVDROM combo drives that are passé amongst whiteboxers.
That's Dell's big task.
I really don't mind Dell in the higher end market segment or in servers.
But I've had numerous people with customer support nightmare phonecalls on
cheap nothing PCs that don't provide them spit. Dell also went into some
market segments it should have stayed out of (Printers?)
Dell is a better manufacturer then many, but that's a little bit like saying
you can drool more then other lobotomy patients.
Dell's high end and server segment is solid. Their low end (read: sub $500
PCs) are garbage. And you get what you pay for.
