Dell and Hewlett-Packard are taking “steps to slash notebook R&D expenditure for 2009, according to sources at Taiwan IC channel distributors,” Hans Wu and Steve Shen report for DIGITIMES.
“Notebook R&D personnel working at Dell and HP are assigned mainly to test the performance and reliability of new parts and components. This work overlaps that performed by R&D staff at ODM makers and so is an area vendors can afford to cut back on without impacting new product development, the sources noted,” Wu and Shen report.
“The cuts in R&D expenditure would allow Dell and HP to reduce operating costs while boosting earnings, the sources added,” Wu and Shen report.
“With the planned cuts, Dell and HP will no longer overwhelmingly control the procurement of parts and components needed for the production of their notebooks and instead will delegate purchasing power to ODM makers, allowing the contract makers to purchase needed parts from the suppliers they chose,” Wu and Shen report.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Dell and HP did notebook R&D?
Actually their hardware is not that bad, it’s the software that sucks!
Reminds me of GM. 10 thousand engineers assigned to re-designing the tail light.
A pc is a pc. What could they possible do to it to make it more worthwhile after all these decades? Plate the screws a different color?
Ahhh…yes. In tough economic times most companies need to cut back and R&D;is often a casualty. Apple, having 20B in cash, can continue to innovate full steam ahead.
Commodity PC manufacturer’s dictionary:
Research (noun) the systematic investigation into and study of Apple Inc. • see plagiarism
Why do this guys test their Notebooks? Even with the gratest and latest hardware, they are still junks because they use windows on top of that… and still using “BIOS” instead of EFI.
…and your telling me this because?
it’s funny.
The more that the HP and Dell cut R&D;, the further behind Apple they will fall.
So the “ODM” makers can essentially make the same laptop and put Dell or HP or whatever stickers on them. How con-veeee-nient…
Sort of like GM cars.
This makes sense, how many people do you need to say “Make it look like a mac?”
Contract manufacturers picking which components go in the laptop may mean they will pick on the basis of price, not quality, so as to reduce the final price to HP or Dell, and/or to boost their margins.
Problems maybe looming for the users of those lappies down the road. Nothing more aggravating than hardware that has intermittent faults – a sign of cheap components, especially RAM.
Now is the wrong time to cut R&D;budgets. This will give their competitors time to leapfrog over them, or have they just given up on innovation ?
“Dell and HP will no longer overwhelmingly control the procurement of parts and components needed for the production of their notebooks and instead will delegate purchasing power to ODM makers.”
Bad move. They’re basically giving up quality control and trusting a third party to deliver top notch goods. Sure, if the third party scimps, they can go to another third party, but the damage to their brand will already be done.
The blood from the Apple’s Mac family of computers is beginning to flow… and the writing is starting to show on the walls!
It’ looks like it’s time for the stockholds to make the jump if they haven’t already!
So let me get this strait their R&D;will now consist of calling a Box assembler in Taiwan and saying build me a laptop with a 15″ LCD, throw in a processor Video Chip and HD, slap my label on it and let me know what to call it when I sell it. Oh yah and install Vista and put a copy of XP in the box so they can up\down grade;-)
Or are they saying the will let go Apple’s engineers? Can they do that without asking Steve?
Actually, this is a common thing to do in tough times. Especially when you have a competitor (Apple) who does invest in R&D;. Wait for them to come to market then copy their product. You’ll have a lag time to market yourself, but when you can hype product differentiation (Windows vs. Mac OS X, corporate contract requirements, etc) you’ll still do OK.
I did not know that they had a functioning R&D;department either.
What they are cutting is quality control not R&D;and I did not know that they had a quality control department either!
This is a really bad decision given the quality problems that even companies like Foxconn have with the MacBook Pro. I have a two-year old MBP built in China with a non-functional CD/DVD drive, automatic double-clicking trackpad mouse, and a battery-charging motherboard that never worked right. I now own an external CD drive, a mouse, and an external battery charger. Never buy a Mac without an AppleCare contract!
“Notebook R&D;personnel working at Dell and HP are assigned mainly to test the performance and reliability of new parts and components.”
my god, that is what R&D;means to them?!?
the creativity fairly drips off those companies…….
Dell and HP cutting back their R&D;???
Hahahahahahahah
Who the hell will notice.
@Paul Johnson…
If any of those issues happened in the first year of ownership, Apple would have been more than happy to fix those issues.
All computers come with a 1 year warrantee, and offer extended service contracts for a bit extra. Get over it.
Dell and HP have an R&D;dept? Wow. Could of fooled me.
“Paul Johnson” is just another of MANY promulgators of FUD, lies, disinformation, misrepresentation, and propaganda from the likes of Dell, MS, HP, Gateway, Acer, and the like. Because no one who posts here has to provide any “bona fides” of his past or present experiences, “Paul” assumes we will take him at his word. HA!
Out of 100 people you might meet at any given carnival or flea market, how many would you trust to give you sound financial or technical advice upon first meeting them? NONE! Same thing here. “Paul” is just another huckster trying to feel better about himself and his poor PC choices by touting unverifiable reports of Apple failures.
As Bill the Cat would say, “PHHHHHTTTTT!” I don’t believe a word you say, “Paul.”
Yeah, cut R&D;. That will really get sales going.