Monday, April 7, 2008

Dell to sell out to foreign interests


Now this may seem like a bit of a stretch to suggest that Dell would be no more. Only a few years ago Dell was the worlds largest PC maker. This is no longer the case as it's slipped to second behind HP and may soon slip behind other manufacturers. Dell was once a company with second to none service who's agents would give their best effort to try and fix your problem even if it wasn't with one of Dells products. Now with the Introduction of contracts where even the basic troubleshooting expires at the end of your warranty and the use of Dell On Call to force people to pay for things that were formerly free Dell is no better than anyone else for service and worse than some. So why would I say that Dell will sell out to foreign interests? Well recently Dell abandoned their direct to the customer model and just yesterday I learned that Dell would abandon the customization model meaning that you'd be limited in what you can get from Dell just as with other manufacturers. Now I could have understood a limited departure from the direct to customer model, perhaps Dell could have had their products carried at Costco or other members only warehouse stores. The decision to sell at Walmart marked the decision that Dell's products were no longer special and no longer anything more than just an average computer.
I think the loss of the customization model is the final nail in the coffin for Dell within the next year I see them announcing that HP (who yes isn't technically foreign) or Lenovo has agreed to either take over the company or to a "Merger" where the Dell name ceases to be.

1 comment:

Wendy and Al said...

I'd like to say that the tombstone really caught my interest--wherever did you find it?
A sorry situation indeed but wasn't it US owned anyway?
I think Edmonton got the worst of the deal, providing all that land at a low price and now it is (I guess) soon to be empty. Hope someone else can take over that vast building --but who?
Good writing !