“Dell’s moves to lower prices, hire more understandable customer service reps and stop product fires do not appear to be helping its immediate fortunes,” Ashlee Vance reports for The Register.
“Think Equity analyst Eric Ross warned today that channel checks in Asia show Dell’s PC sales ‘declining rapidly below expectations.’ Dell will likely struggle to correct the sales slip before the end of its third quarter, according to the analyst, and now faces a ‘near-impossible’ situation,” Vance reports. “The hardware maker may well need to issue yet another mid-quarter revenue warning – a process that’s becoming a tradition in Round Rock.”
“Dell’s management has been doing everything it can think of to try and revive the company’s fortunes. Sadly for investors, ‘everything’ doesn’t include all that much. Dell has moved to cut prices, eliminate rebates and hire more customer service representatives, thinking this will restore its image as a decent, low-cost computer supplier,” Vance reports. “In the meantime, exploding laptops and ongoing customer support horror stories undermine Dell’s ‘we’re better now’ pitch.”
Full article here.
“ThinkEquity analyst Eric Ross, has a ‘Sell’ rating on Dell,” The Associated Press reports. “Dell preannounced a significant profit shortfall in its previous quarter, blaming falling prices and a slowing personal computer market. The PC market will likely continue to struggle, Ross said.”
MacDailyNews Note: Except for Apple, that is. From the info we have, Mac sales aren’t struggling.
The AP continues, “We have heard PC makers believe 2H06 is much flatter than they previously expected…” Ross wrote in a note to investors… Among Ross’ laundry list of problems faced by Round Rock, Texas-based Dell is a “management team clearly in disarray with factions fighting for power,” as well as a loss of key employees to major competitors.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Did Michael Dell think “we’re coming after you, you’re in our sights” was a joke? Bzzzt. Dell should attempt the impossible and Think Different™ about that statement (Jobs wasn’t kidding) and his company’s limited future. Beleaguered Dell, with their OS-limited, economy-grade, ugly PCs simply cannot match Apple’s Mac offerings.
Why buy a Dell when Apple’s Intel-based computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows?
What would we do if we were in charge of Dell? Beg Steve Jobs for a Mac OS X license. We’d kowtow until bloody. Upon failing to achieve that miracle on earth, we’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
Related articles:
Fortune compares Mac vs. Dell: ‘you’ll get more for your money with Apple’ – September 11, 2006
More trouble at Dell – September 11, 2006
AP: Time to think different, Apple Mac beats Dell on price, software compatibility, and more – August 23, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell’s ‘DJ Ditty’ flash-based MP3 player is dead – August 22, 2006
Thurrott pits Apple Mac Pro vs. similarly configured Dell, figures out the Mac is less expensive – August 18, 2006
Microsoft Windows five times more expensive for users than Apple’s Mac OS X – August 15, 2006
Apple Mac Pro with/ 20” Cinema Display less expensive than Dell Precision 690 sans monitor – August 10, 2006
Is Dell doomed? – August 24, 2006
Windows portion of PC industry has serious issues while Apple’s Mac thrives – August 24, 2006
Survey shows big jump in consumer interest in buying Apple Mac; Dell takes steep slide – July 06, 2006
Apple passes Dell in market value – May 02, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell dumps ‘DJ’ hard-drive MP3 player line – February 04, 2006
Apple Mac is #1 in European education market, pushes Dell down into second place – February 03, 2006
Why buy a Dell when Apple’s Intel-based computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Dell’s preloaded with Ubuntu Linux makes more sense.
It’s not as if they stopped making money, though. And, unfortunately, when Vista comes out, there will be a considerable spike in sales.
There’s a significant difference between being good value and being just plain cheap. Dell have gone so bargain basement that not only is it becoming harder to lower the prices any further but even if they do it potentially serves to just worsen their image as making low-end stuff. Dell tried to sell computers to everyone but in doing so compromised themselves.
Is Dell beleaguered yet. Is it huh? Is it?
I’m not sure what you said Ampar, but it sounds a little dirty.
Artisticulated:
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How long before HP, Dell and Gateway merge?
bring back the photos please mdn.
it makes the whole laughing fit even more enjoyable.
That Dell’s sales pick up with Vista. It will a little, I think… but where Dell can sell LOTS of computers (businesses) it seems as if Vista will not be incorporated in too quickly, if ever.
Why does MDN sometimes make an atribution to readers for their submissions and othertimes not?
A little arrogance goes a long way – as Michael Dell is discovering…
I’m sure Michael could use a good Analrapist right about now.Maybe one day they will move up from ‘Sell” to “Don’t buy” like Bluth Construction did
MW:table, as in they are starting to turn.
Vista is still many months away, and too far away to save Dell’s 2H2006 numbers. It’s going to be a very cold Christmas in Round Rock this year.
You know, I’ve been coming to this site on and off for years..
It’s the same old canned rethoric from MDN over something that really amounts to nothing.
The ENTIRE PC industry is slowing down because it’s reflective of how the economies are in each particular country.
Apple sales are slowing as WELL, sure the Apple Stores seem full, but it’s a illusion.
You see for every Mac sold there might be 1-3 customers in store associated with that one Mac or iPod.
Now in the buisness world where Apple doesn’t play all that much, three people meeting in a office, the IT head, the salesman and the boss, can authorize tens of thousands of computer purchases.
Also Apple targets the location of their stores with the zip code of the most amount of previous buyers.
Before Apple Stores, mom and pop stores used to sell Mac’s, and they would pop up in all sorts of locations. Because of the lack of previous sales informatin, demographics and other marketing data, a lot of these mom and pop Apple stores were not very busy at all.
Apple is putting it’s best foot forward, but like playing blackjack, you can’t win against a bad shoe.
Mac users by far have everything they need right now.
PPC G5’s was the machine to have, lots of third party upgrade options, software titles and a kick ass processor.
Now it’s Intel, and EVERYBODY has Intel.
Mac’s are appearing to be turning into generic PC’s with the introduction of “Boot Camp”
JESUS H. CHRISTMAS WHY DID APPLE CALL IT “BOOT CAMP”??
“WHY DID APPLE CALL IT “BOOT CAMP”??”
Because it’s 6-13 weeks (YTTMV) of hell?
They’re all waiting for Vista to appear. Fools.
No tears shed for Dell, but it’s a shame and a lesson at how the Microsoft monoculture can impact so many other businesses. It’s unhealthy.
Let’s not all gloat too much. We can all quietly savor the decline of Dell.
‘Scuse me, but does the wording of the headline imply that sales aren’t declining as much as expected?
I haven’t heard of Apple laptops exploding so severely as Dells, and I wonder why? Does Dell’s design make the Sony problem worse or did they just happen to get all the bad batteries?
But the MAIN fault is Sony’s, and it sucks for Dell that THEY are getting all the bad press, while Sony, Apple, etc. are not!
Well, their loss is virus-free Mac computing’s gain
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Maybe it’s the Osborne thing for VISTA. Nobody wants to but an XP equipped PeeCee just to get stuck having to buy VISTA.
Dell computers are God awful. I’ve owned 2 and have friends that own some too.
But to call Dell beleaguered is a bit of a strech. The still outsell Apple 5 to 1 or so and the are very strong in the corporate world
When the Register writes a negative article about Apple MDN rips it as a rag.
When When the Register writes a negative article about Dell MDN NO LONER rips it as a rag.
Hey Bill, are you sure you’re not ON de rag?
Come onnnnnn . . . it was so EASY!!!!
“Dell’s management has been doing everything it can think of to try and revive the company’s fortunes.”
ehh, what about giving the investor’s their money back
Not that I wish Dell well or anything, but I am always suspicious of “channel” analysts. The only channel on the sales side at Dell is Dell. I haven’t heard any news from them. And if I were Dell, and some supplier blabbed about poor shipments to an “analyst”, said manufacturer would be off my list of approved manufacturers in an New York… err… Texas minute.
How many times have we heard that the “channels” indicate that iPod sales have tanked? How many times has it been accurate?
Just sayin’….
Master of Puppets,
Why, how sophisticated you sound. While you have been “…coming to this site on and off for years,” I have been putting my money where my mouth is/was for years. And the value of my AAPL holdings multiplied by between 12 and 13 times.
Most of this year, Apple’s unit sales were held back by their transition to Intel, just as the latter transitioned to a new chip architecture along with having to ramp up its volume, given that it was using new production lines. Of course Apple couldn’t expand greatly, given the delivery limitations of Intel’s ramp up. But the transitions, Apple’s and Intel’s are about over.
During the October 2006 quarterly report and guidance session between Jobs and the analysts, the crushing stupidity of “Apple sales are slowing as WELL…” will be exposed when Apple blows the doors off the notion that Mac sales are flat.
Thank you for not investing in AAPL. It has kept the price low for those of us who can see what is happening.
MW: pressure, as in Apple’s squeezing the life out of Dell.
Believe me when I say this: the Vista introduction will be a non-event. Gamers may move quickly to the new Windows, but that will be it. It will be like the introduction of XP — virtually nobody will buy boxed versions to upgrade existing hardware; consumers will adopt gradually as they replace their PCs over the next three years; and businesses will mostly ignore Vista for years, as they wait for a stable version.
I don’t think consumers are capable of getting excited about a new version of Windows. Microsoft desperately wants a repeat of 1995, and I don’t think it will ever happen. We just aren’t that naive anymore.
Our Corporation used to buy Dell computers exclusively, until about 4 years ago when we switched to Compaq (now HP). The Dells from over 5 years ago were much better built than they are today. The HP’s, while cheap, are much better put together than Dell computers are. This is why Dell is hurting. Their reputation is catching up with them. This has been coming for years and years, and they won’t be able to turn around the bad perception over night, if ever.