"Dell's halo is fading"

Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
be vicious.:-)

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

In article <ru0gp1dnh9hdo4r37rcjnb7irpe4prvn5u@4ax.com>, fammacd=!
SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com says...
> Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
> realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
> have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
> is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
> sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
> be vicious.:-)

Hmm, why did your last sentence give me a mental image of Mikey
getting a wedgie? ;-)

--
Keith

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:59:13 -0500, Keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

>In article <ru0gp1dnh9hdo4r37rcjnb7irpe4prvn5u@4ax.com>, fammacd=!
>SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com says...
>> Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
>> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
>> realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
>> have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
>> is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
>> sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
>> be vicious.:-)
>
>Hmm, why did your last sentence give me a mental image of Mikey
>getting a wedgie? ;-)

Do ya think.... Mikey wears a thong?:-)

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

In article <pn8hp153dftpcgn1740mfblg46vem936sk@4ax.com>, fammacd=!
SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com says...
> On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:59:13 -0500, Keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>
> >In article <ru0gp1dnh9hdo4r37rcjnb7irpe4prvn5u@4ax.com>, fammacd=!
> >SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com says...
> >> Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
> >> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
> >> realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
> >> have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
> >> is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
> >> sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
> >> be vicious.:-)
> >
> >Hmm, why did your last sentence give me a mental image of Mikey
> >getting a wedgie? ;-)
>
> Do ya think.... Mikey wears a thong?:-)

Now you've gone and done it. I'll never be able to sleep!

--
Keith

On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:08:56 -0500, George Macdonald
<fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com> wrote:

>Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
>http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
>realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
>have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
>is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
>sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
>be vicious.:-)

What a news - Dull Computer sucked for long, long time. I thought
that at least their business line was OK. But after being issued with
brand spanking new Latitude D610 (? - can't look at it - don't work
there anymore) it came on me right away that I like my wife's old T22
much better. Everything from style (hated that grayish-silvery paint
job) to screen (same size, same res, but old IBM looks much crispier)
to docking (IBM is a snap, and with Dell you need to actively search
for that position to push it down) to weight (you can feel these few
extra oz when you carry it on your shoulder a noticeable distance).
IBM even feels more responsive even though it's only P3M 900, and the
Dell had something like PM 1.4(or was it 1.6?). The only good thing
about Dell was Centrino wireless - worked much faster than PC card
WI-FI a-b-g in the same spot in my house. To sum it up, Dell lost the
last drop of my respect with that lappy, and I was almost happy
returning it back to the employer when the project was over. That's
what happend when they sent production to China, support to India, and
R&D, that always was cut to the bone, someplace in Asia (India?
Taiwan? doesn't matter - outsourced to 3rd party anyway). Now they
are purely consumer brand and marketing company. Even at that, they
seem to do everything to make the brand lose its premium luster. No
wonder Mickey is about to lose his #1 preferred customer spot at INTC
to Steve.

NNN

As a side note - I suspect Lenovo Thinkpad is not, or soon will be not
of the same league as IBM Thinkpad. So what will remain when one
needs to buy a laptop say a year from now? Just please don't say HP -
after Carly's tenure they are not any better than Dell.

>>>>> "no" == nobody@nowhere net <mygarbage2000@hotmail.com> writes:

no> On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:08:56 -0500, George Macdonald
no> <fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com> wrote:

>> Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
>> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I
>> hadn't realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end
>> systems, they have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it
>> extended to 1-year.... is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how
>> many bad capacitors it'd take to sink the company; when you
>> stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can be vicious.:-)

Bottom line here, and dell works for the shareholders and not the
users . Some of those other brands you can't even get any support even
though you have a one year warranty.

no> What a news - Dull Computer sucked for long, long time. I thought
no> that at least their business line was OK. But after being issued
no> with brand spanking new Latitude D610 (? - can't look at it -
no> don't work there anymore) it came on me right away that I like my
no> wife's old T22 much better. Everything from style (hated that
no> grayish-silvery paint job) to screen (same size, same res, but
no> old IBM looks much crispier) to docking (IBM is a snap, and with
no> Dell you need to actively search for that position to push it
no> down) to weight (you can feel these few extra oz when you carry
no> it on your shoulder a noticeable distance). IBM even feels more
no> responsive even though it's only P3M 900, and the Dell had
no> something like PM 1.4(or was it 1.6?). The only good thing about
no> Dell was Centrino wireless - worked much faster than PC card
no> WI-FI a-b-g in the same spot in my house. To sum it up, Dell lost
no> the last drop of my respect with that lappy, and I was almost
no> happy returning it back to the employer when the project was
no> over. That's what happend when they sent production to China,
no> support to India, and R&D, that always was cut to the bone,
no> someplace in Asia (India? Taiwan? doesn't matter - outsourced to
no> 3rd party anyway). Now they are purely consumer brand and
no> marketing company. Even at that, they seem to do everything to
no> make the brand lose its premium luster. No wonder Mickey is about
no> to lose his #1 preferred customer spot at INTC to Steve.

no> NNN

Another point with the new laptops and xp. The last several laptops I
have seen running this XP had some type of CPU speed reduction to
increase battery life. So one reason they are less responsive is
because of this. Turn it off and the laptop is much quicker, but
battery life goes away rapidly. I think you can disable this when
connected to AC.

All dells don't suck. Some of them are actually good. The cost
cutting is having an impact on the whole industry. Buyer beware. I
have been lucky with the two dell laptops I have recently purchased
the 600m and 700m. Both have done very well so far, but time will
tell.


True. However, someone will have to make a high end (durable laptop)
because there is a market for such a laptop. I suspect the main
drivers of the laptop market today are college students and even high
school students. Doubt if Mom/Pop will want to pay too much and 500
bucks looks about the right price point. Hay all they are doing is
wordprocessing and hooking up the ipod. That's about it.

Whatever.

nobody@nowhere.net wrote:
> WI-FI a-b-g in the same spot in my house. To sum it up, Dell lost the
> last drop of my respect with that lappy, and I was almost happy
> returning it back to the employer when the project was over. That's
> what happend when they sent production to China, support to India, and
> R&D, that always was cut to the bone, someplace in Asia (India?
> Taiwan? doesn't matter - outsourced to 3rd party anyway). Now they
> are purely consumer brand and marketing company. Even at that, they
> seem to do everything to make the brand lose its premium luster. No
> wonder Mickey is about to lose his #1 preferred customer spot at INTC
> to Steve.

The Dells and IBMs were always produced in China as far back as I can
remember. Prior to that they may have been produced in Taiwan, which is
not that far from China anyways.

As for support, I think a lot of Dell's support is actually coming from
Canada. My younger brother might be getting a job at Dell pretty soon.
Dell has taken over an old building previously owned by DEC->Compaq->HP
in Ottawa, so it looks like they are outsourcing that to Canada these
days.

Yousuf Khan

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 17:30:22 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com>
wrote:

>The Dells and IBMs were always produced in China as far back as I can
>remember. Prior to that they may have been produced in Taiwan, which is
>not that far from China anyways.

Most IBM ThinkPads for the North American market were assembled in
Mexico until a few years ago. IBM build that plant specifically for
ThinkPad assembly. Production switched to China maybe 3-4 years ago.
IBM/Lenovo still has the R&D center in Raleigh, N.C., the call center
in Atlanta, and the corporate headquarters in N.Y.

Dell has at least one desktop assembly plant in the U.S., in North
Carolina:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/top...=us&l=en&s=corp

>As for support, I think a lot of Dell's support is actually coming from
>Canada. My younger brother might be getting a job at Dell pretty soon.
>Dell has taken over an old building previously owned by DEC->Compaq->HP
>in Ottawa, so it looks like they are outsourcing that to Canada these
>days.

According to the article referenced above, Dell also has a call center
in Oklahoma. And they have other operations in the U.S., including the
corporate headquarters in Texas. I'm not defending Dell, but they do
seem to have as least some of their operations in the U.S.

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 16:19:33 GMT, "nobody@nowhere.net"
<mygarbage2000@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:08:56 -0500, George Macdonald
><fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com> wrote:
>
>>Quoted from PCWorld's latest Reliability & Service survey:
>>http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/arti...409,pg,1,00.asp. I hadn't
>>realized how far things had gone here: e.g. on its low-end systems, they
>>have a 90-day warranty and for ~$25. you can get it extended to 1-year....
>>is that nuts or what? Makes ya wonder how many bad capacitors it'd take to
>>sink the company; when you stretch the elastic that far, the snap-back can
>>be vicious.:-)
>
>What a news - Dull Computer sucked for long, long time. I thought
>that at least their business line was OK. But after being issued with
>brand spanking new Latitude D610 (? - can't look at it - don't work
>there anymore) it came on me right away that I like my wife's old T22
>much better. Everything from style (hated that grayish-silvery paint
>job) to screen (same size, same res, but old IBM looks much crispier)
>to docking (IBM is a snap, and with Dell you need to actively search
>for that position to push it down) to weight (you can feel these few
>extra oz when you carry it on your shoulder a noticeable distance).
>IBM even feels more responsive even though it's only P3M 900, and the
>Dell had something like PM 1.4(or was it 1.6?). The only good thing
>about Dell was Centrino wireless - worked much faster than PC card
>WI-FI a-b-g in the same spot in my house. To sum it up, Dell lost the
>last drop of my respect with that lappy, and I was almost happy
>returning it back to the employer when the project was over. That's
>what happend when they sent production to China, support to India, and
>R&D, that always was cut to the bone, someplace in Asia (India?
>Taiwan? doesn't matter - outsourced to 3rd party anyway). Now they
>are purely consumer brand and marketing company. Even at that, they
>seem to do everything to make the brand lose its premium luster. No
>wonder Mickey is about to lose his #1 preferred customer spot at INTC
>to Steve.

That's a kinda big leap for Apple - from 5%(?) market share to the same
league as Dell. What would all the Apple-weenies think if they see their
"premium brand" assigned to dumping Celerons?

As for Dell I don't want one of those things -- laptop or desktop -- near
our office network - someone from one of our offices brought a Dell laptop
in and hooked up for a few days and every time he powered it off, it hung
the hub, i.e. the entire network. He also had trouble with the notorious
drifting cursor - embarrassing when doing a demo for a client and you can't
seem to control your system.:-) Dell could not correct the problem.

>NNN
>
>As a side note - I suspect Lenovo Thinkpad is not, or soon will be not
>of the same league as IBM Thinkpad. So what will remain when one
>needs to buy a laptop say a year from now? Just please don't say HP -
>after Carly's tenure they are not any better than Dell.

I'm somewhat hopeful for Lenovo keeping the IBM quality - it's early yet
but the initial signs are good though they still seem to have the IBM
logo... which IIRC Lenovo has the right to use for a year or two.

Toshiba used to do a business quality laptop a few years ago but they
seemed to drop the ball when they brought out those cheap-looking shiney
black plastic cases - really looks consumer-grade stuff. They've said they
want to attack the business market again but I haven't seen any signs yet.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 19:49:48 -0500, George Macdonald
<fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com> wrote:

....snip...
>> No
>>wonder Mickey is about to lose his #1 preferred customer spot at INTC
>>to Steve.
>
>That's a kinda big leap for Apple - from 5%(?) market share to the same
>league as Dell. What would all the Apple-weenies think if they see their
>"premium brand" assigned to dumping Celerons?
>
....more snip...

As for the volume, yes, AAPL will never use up as much Celery, but
Dull will continue consuming them by truckloads, preferred status or
not. But from marketing standpoint Apple brand has as much, if not
more, cachet. So expect that after traditional Intel's paper launch
of new latest and greatest chips, that symbolic quantity that went to
Mickey first for years, will be redirected to Steve. Not sure about
Xeons though - I don't see Apple making a lot of use of these, or even
a lot of noise, except maybe the noise of oversized jet engine-shaped
coolers the latest Intel chips need to avoid melting down.
;-)
NNN