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http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/11/01/dell.fails.to.meet.goals/

Dell fails to meet lofty growth rate; quality

updated 11:45 am EST, Tue November 1, 2005

Dell fails to meet goals

While Apple continues to enjoy growth in both its computer and music sectors, rival Dell's "heady days of outpacing its rivals are ending," says BusinessWeek. "Look beyond the surface, and the long-term situation at the world's largest PC maker , while Dell is on the decline)

by MacNN Staff

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Stephen1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

11/01, 11:55am | report spam | close Reply |
Druken sailor laugh...

hahahahahahahahah!!!! Wait a minute I...gurgle...hahahahahahaha!

climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

0

11/01, 11:56am | report spam | close Reply |
repeat after me:

ha.

ha.

ha.

rtamesis
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2000

0

11/01, 12:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
The bigger they are...

..the harder they fall! TIMBER!!!!!!!

typoon
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Oct 1999

0

11/01, 12:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
Yup Apple's shut down

Yup Apple's shut down alright.

JLFanboy
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2001

0

11/01, 12:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well, then.

Moo hoo ha ha.

friday04
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2005

0

11/01, 12:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Any more detail?

Does anyone have a link or any more detail on the 2001 "shut down" promise by Michael Dell? I don't remember him making that comment and I'd be interested in reading it today.

I remember in 2001 a *LOT* of people predicted that Apple was irrelevant and would not make it.

whackjob
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

11/01, 12:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
haaaaaa!

ha effing ha!

DULL

Panzer
Forum Regular

Joined: Jan 2002

0

11/01, 12:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Any more detail?

I was going to comment on this story and then I saw your message. I do not remember him saying anything about 'promising to shut down' Apple. I do recall him saying that if he was in charge of Apple he would shut it down, sell everything and return the money to the shareholders due to the companies unprofitability and unviability as a company. The way it's written here it sounds like a threat to put them out of buisness, what I read then was much different. A little revisionist history apparently.

tuscmat
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Joined: Mar 2004

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11/01, 12:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
His own prophecy

It's time for Mike to sell and give the money back to the shareholders. I guess he was referring to his own company in 2001.

cebritt
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2000

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11/01, 12:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
Beleaguered Dell

Dell laid off 300+ employees here in Austin last week, many of them managers. Their product quality and tech support quality are mediocre. Their stock price is going down. I think they've earned the titled, "beleaguered"...

kaisdaddy
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Joined: Apr 2005

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11/01, 12:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
This type of story...

...is right for the kind of vitriolic response you see here. Apple and Dell are both companies that try to make money for their shareholders. Sometimes one of them is up and the other is down. This is all cyclical, folks.

It looks like Dell has gotten so good at penetrating their market (PC users) that they can no longer sustain their current rate of growth. Same thing happened to Microsoft, which is trying to get into different markets now to keep their growth up.

Apple is also expanding into markets it was not traditionally in. Nothing wrong with that but it's good to have a little perspective.

aristotles
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2004

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11/01, 12:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple not beleaguered?

The talk about the success of Apple, the once-beleaguered rival Hewlett-Packard and the woes of Dell. My how the tables have turned eh?

Stephen1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

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11/01, 12:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re:This type of story...

I thnk you're taking these responses far to seriously. Of course it's cyclical, but the responses to this article are actually (in my estimation) appropriate considering Michael Dells promise to "shut down Apple". Which in my opnion is every bit as vitriolic as anything contained in these posts. It also comes from the CEO from a major computer company, not a few people posting on a website. You'd think he'sd be just a tad more responsible.

milhouse
Senior User

Joined: Jan 2001

0

11/01, 12:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ummmm...

Blah.. blah... blah...

friday04
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2005

0

11/01, 12:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: This Type of Story

Once a company hits maximum saturation there's nothing left for it to do. Ask Microsoft or McDonald's. Dell really can't expect its shareholders to benefit in any way other than a stable "flat-line" of stock price.

At least Apple has 97% of the computer market to go before they would have such a problem. Their growth "potential" is much better than Dell's for the forseeable future.

brondee73
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Joined: Oct 2001

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11/01, 12:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
"Shut down Apple?"

Here is a link to Michael Dell's infamous statement on if he were Steve Jobs:

http://www.techweb.com/wire/news/1997/10/1006dell.html

Enjoy. Maybe, he should publicly retrack that comment. Although with the comment being eight years old (circa 1997), I'm sure most people have either forgotten it or don't care at this point.

Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

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11/01, 12:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
cyclical

>>Sometimes one of them is up and the other is down

He say's typing from his Osbourne I.

If only it was that easy, sometimes companies go down and stay down.

Stephen1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

11/01, 12:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: ummm

Brilliant..Don't hurt yourself

jimster
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Joined: Aug 2005

0

11/01, 01:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
Dell and Innovation

Yeah I remember Mike Dell saying that if he was in charge of Apple he would shut it down and return the money to shareholders. Now with what is doing on and the lack of innovation, it speaks volumes.

For Mike Dell to say he would shut Apple down clearly shows that even the top leadership does not see potential in assets. At the time, yes Apple was in the basement but what Mike Dell failed to realize is the potential of the assets. His failure to identify the things that make Apple unique and appealing seems to bleed over into his business and it is finally catching up.

The things that make Apple appealing is the fact they have talented designers for their products and great customer service. In this day and age where consumers are constantly dealing with poor customer service, companies that go out of their way to build quality products and back those products with excellent service and support are going to survive.

As a consumer, I will drop a company that provides poor customer service. I will pay a little more if need be to have peace of mind in knowing the the products is made correctly with less of a chance of initial failure and if it does fail, I need to know that the issue will be handled promptly, with little issue and no red tape.

I think in this day and age, consumers are demanding more for their money and they are tired of companies that do not provide that. People are spending their money wisely on products that offer the best value all around and not just the initial purchase price.

phillymjs
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Joined: Jun 2000

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11/01, 01:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Gonna get worse for them

They've just about achieved market saturation, so from here on out they'll have to rely very heavily on repeat customers.

The only problem with that is that their build quality has gone down in the name of saving money, which means their products break more often. So their customers need more support. And in the name of saving money, they outsourced their consumer support. And it stinks-- it's all script monkeys whose primary language is not English, cannot deviate from their scripts, and have practically no authority to do anything to help you. Dell's poor-tech-support victims are many and vocal. They themselves will not buy from Dell again, and they are probably scaring off other people from buying from Dell with the tales of their experiences.

Dell's previous spending cuts have had the effect of driving away a lot of the very people they need to sustain them now.

I remember when Mr. Dell made his smug remark, so I'm going to indulge in some sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

mike7204
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2003

0

11/01, 04:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
quality dropping

i agree with what everyone is saying about product quality going down hill. i had 2 gx280's have 3 SATA disks die in them, and one of those 3 was the replacment for the first one that died. and these are optiplex systems. they're *supposed* to be the "business class" systems. they're *supposed* tested more thoroughly, they're *supposed* to meet higher QA standards. cough, 8uLL5h1T. their support isnt exactly the star player on the team either. from sending the wrong part multiple times per incident to shipping parts to the wrong location... and i mean the domestic support, not the foreign outsourced side.

driven
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: May 2001

0

11/01, 05:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Dell, Quality and Repeat

I used to be a HUGE fan of Dell. I loved my Inspiron 8200 and the decent service that I had at the time.

BUT: The next time I went to place an order from them (about a year later) it was like talking to an entirely different company. It was horrible.

Even doing something simple such as ordering a monitor from them was a fiasco. (Although at least that worked without a hitch .... when it finally did arrive.)

Would I ever buy another computer from Dell? Not on your life. I'm too accustomed to the wonderful service that Apple provides that it would be sheer torture to deal with Dell now.

So yes ... they have lost my repeat business.

That said: I do think that not having AMD chips will hurt them. I also think that their ongoing crucade to cut features (such as the once standard docking port on the inspirons) will hurt them.

MrKlin
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2004

0

11/01, 09:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Sheesh

Geez, Mac users complaining on a Mac board that Dell has lost their business. Shocking!

Sad thing is I have never seen a group of people whose own self-worth and hapiness is tied to a corporation (or that corporation's competitor, in this case).

aristotles
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2004

0

11/01, 10:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re:Sheesh

That was great. The irony of your post. Priceless.

localnet
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

0

01/21, 05:41am | report spam | close Reply |
Quality and Service?

I have a small business, and needed to purchase a new PC last month, Dell wasn't even considered. To many horror stories out there regarding their QC and lack of customer service. Some guy in India with a phony anglo name, that I can barely understand, is not customer service. Been there done that. I am just a little guy, but I still need windows boxes for my company and employees.

That is until someone creates some transportation software for the Mac. Any Mac software developers out there looking for some part time work?

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Dell fails to meet lofty growth rate; quality

updated 11:45 am EST, Tue November 1, 2005

Dell fails to meet goals

Druken sailor laugh...

repeat after me:

The bigger they are...

Yup Apple's shut down

Well, then.

Any more detail?

haaaaaa!

Re: Any more detail?

His own prophecy

Beleaguered Dell

This type of story...

Apple not beleaguered?

Re:This type of story...

Ummmm...

Re: This Type of Story

"Shut down Apple?"

cyclical

Re: ummm

Dell and Innovation

Gonna get worse for them

quality dropping

Dell, Quality and Repeat

Sheesh

Re:Sheesh

Quality and Service?

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Dell fails to meet lofty growth rate; quality

updated 11:45 am EST, Tue November 1, 2005

Dell fails to meet goals

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Recent Articles

Druken sailor laugh...

repeat after me:

The bigger they are...

Yup Apple's shut down

Well, then.

Any more detail?

haaaaaa!

Re: Any more detail?

His own prophecy

Beleaguered Dell

This type of story...

Apple not beleaguered?

Re:This type of story...

Ummmm...

Re: This Type of Story

"Shut down Apple?"

cyclical

Re: ummm

Dell and Innovation

Gonna get worse for them

quality dropping

Dell, Quality and Repeat

Sheesh

Re:Sheesh

Quality and Service?

Login Here

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