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Sean Pulrang
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.iclub.com
ICLUBcentral
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| 05/24/2007 12:40 PM |
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I found an article over at the Wall Street Journal today about how Dell plans to start selling computers through Wal-Mart, and some thoughts went through my head in pretty quick order:
Dell's too cheap to start their own stores.
They don't want to put the effort into marketing the computers themselves.
Other than the fact that Wal-Mart is huge, why in heck would Dell partner with them?
The first two are powered mostly by my suspicion of Dell banking most of its growth on being able to assemble and sell computers cheaper than the next guy, but the third comes from my understanding of how Wal-Mart works. Specifically that they push the companies they work with every year to lower prices on items, with the threat of the item being dropped if the company in question doesn't comply.
Now, even though Dell has made a habit of selling low cost computers for years, and even though the same hardware tends to cost less each year than the year before, I have to believe that there is bottom limit to how much it costs to make a computer capable of running even Windows XP or Linux (both of which, by my understanding, Dell is currently offering as options for those who don't want Vista).
I read a quote on someone's blog a few weeks back to the effect that Dell had made a living swimming to the bottom of the price pool, and now that it had hit, what would they do?
It seems like they're making deals with the other King of growth by price reduction; does anyone think that either of these companies will come out better for it?
P.S. I must admit before closing that I have never owned a Dell for my personal use, being a fan of Apple, and that I do go out of my way to not shop at Wal-Mart
Sean |
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Sean Pulrang
Asst. Mgr. Tech Support Dept., ICLUBcentral Inc.
To file a support request, visit: http://www.iclub.com/support |
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