Dell canada's computer prices have skyrocketed.

[CougTek]

Their boxes suddenly cost 30-40% more than they did a few weeks ago (maybe even compared to yesterday, I haven't checked). I don't think this is going to help them to improve their market share. Maybe it has to do with their complain about their low average selling price.

A Celeron 2.4GHz used to cost 449$ (It's been like that for more than a year). Now they sell the same POS at 619$. Hard drive, optical drive and memory haven't changed much.

* all prices in canayen currency.

 

[CougTek]

...but their 2005FPW (great display BTW) is now on sale at 680$CAN. I paid mine 765$ three weeks ago, damn!

 

[Mercutio]

As I recall, Dell's 2nd Quarter results were abysmal. I think they might've even posted a loss on earnings. There was a sharp downward trend, which is what happens when you sell at a loss and try to make up for it on volume.
I'm not 100% sure the coupons are going away, but the $400 computer that includes an LCD monitor in the package probably is. For a while, anyway.

 

[Tannin]

Reminds me of Osbourne. (Australian company, probably nothing to do with the US Osbourne.) They had something like 20% of the Australian market and their new CEO decided to double their market share. (!)

His method? Buy on credit, sell on a pay-now, get-your-system-later basis, and price stuff below cost on the theory that exchange rate fluctuations would come to the rescue before you actually had to pay for all those motherboards and hard drives. It worked, too: their market share skyrocketed and they got up to around 30% of the Australian retail slice .......... for about three months. Then the $AU went down a few points instead of up a few points and the motherboard and RAM and hard drive suppliers said "hey, how about our money?" and Osbourne went broke in spectacular style. (Leaving, by the way, thousands upon thousands of gullable Australian consumers without the $2500 computers they had already paid cash on the nail for.)

In the end, if you build your business model on the three great marketing points of price, price, and price, you will build crap and sooner or later go belly up. Dell are past due for a rethink.

 

[e_dawg]

... but just think of what they are doing for the Indian economy and the skills training they are providing to their workforce. Every year, Dell provides millions with an opportunity to practise and improve their English skills in a live customer service setting without requiring any prior computer knowledge whatsoever. As long as a representative is able to identify the general type of question being asked look it up in Dell's database of over 15 possible problems and be able to recount scripted responses to said problems on the phone, they are encouraged to work for Dell's call center in Bangalore. Michael Dell personally promises that no well-intentioned applicant will be turned away. 8)

 

[Mercutio]

Over 15?!? I've only counted 7.
Man, I guess those level 2 guys really know their stuff.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

Hmm, Dell prices go up. The have done in Blighty as well. I wonder if it has anything to do with the EU investigation into payments made by Intel to Dell for 'marketing' purposes. At the same time AMD has raised the same issue in their court case.

According to my source at Avnet (a huge Euro distie), it all came to a head when Dell won a deal for Manchester University for the provision of servers from under the nose of Avnet and their partners. They came in making a huge loss on the deal, and it all blew up at the same time as the rest of it came out. Now their prices have gone up and Dell are going upmarket all of a sudden. Hmmm. Looks like Dell's days of selling below cost using Intel's money are over. It has just broken my heart.

Linky: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=19

 

[e_dawg]

I have always found Dell expensive in Canada. Unlike the US, we don't get those ridiculous deals from the dell.com site or even the regular discounts. It's usually the free shipping, free RAM upgrade, or worst of all, a free printer. Yeah, right. A free printer means only one thing: $100 a year in inkjet cartridges. Occasionally, Dell.ca will get really loco and offer free RAM AND HD upgrade AND free shipping on select models. Wow, not a bad for last year's model! :evil:

 

[i]

Dell set to disappoint universe again

 

[CougTek]

Maybe that'll force them to finally (dreaming here) start to sell AMD processors.

Afterall, they must have a hard time to sell their higher-end gaming systems when most enthusiasts know* that Athlon 64 chips considerably outperform Intel's Pentium 4 CPUs in games.


* AMD outsold Intel on retail chips back in September.

 

[Pradeep]

Dell were definitely desperate last quarter. Normally we spec P4 3.6 workstations, we placed an order last week and they upgraded us to P4 3.8GHz, several hundred dollars off per system, and gave us free overnight shipping.

 

[CityK]

I predict that Dell's house of cards is going to be rocked by accounting irregulartiies and antitrust charges ..... Michael Dell on the chain gang by 2009!

 

[LiamC]

Not Dell Canada but

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cs=04&category_id=6197&first=true&mnf=116&k=

 

[CougTek]

Maybe that'll force them to finally (dreaming here) start to sell AMD processors.

 

[Tannin]

For Dell, selling AMD would be a huge problem. Sure, at least to start with, AMD would cut them a massive discount (just to get a foot in the door, and in particular so as to finally cross out the one and only top 10 manufacturer that has never used a non-Intel CPU) but only to start with. After a while, AMD would start charging Dell a market price.

Much worse, Intel would start charging Dell a market price. This would be a huge problem for Dell - a firm, after all, which wouldn't know a technological innovation if you shoved one up its backside sideways, and has no other real claim to a seat at the top table other than its ability to move a lot of boxes engineered by other companies and heavily subsidised by one particular other company (Intel).

Without the massive Intel subsidy, Dell are dead meat.

Even with the subsidy, they seem to have hit the wall. What are they going to do now?

Either they come up with something brilliant (what? beats me) or else they come back to the field with a bump. They didn't get to be #1 by being totally stupid, but life without an Intel cash cow propping them up looks like a pretty bleak prospect. They would be very hard pressed to stay in front of the competition - in particular, Acer, which is making a big push at the moment, and looks set to overtake IBM/Lenovo any day.

Lenovo, BTW, are going to have to get cracking on a game plan Real Soon Now. If they just drift along, or (worse) if they start cost-cutting and dumbing down their quality, the creditors will start leaning on them and they could be in big trouble.

 

[Pradeep]

Talking of Lenovo Tony, they are putting Thinkpads back on retail shelves in the US this week. Previously they were only available online. Which will be good for anyone that wants to buy a Thinkpad, they will have to drop prices to compete with the Compaqs etc sitting alongside.