Mr. Dell goes to China.
Dell’s outsourcing their manufacturing. What else is new. But if this comment on /. is correct, they’re totally fucked:
You make a point, but you’ve missed the larger picture. I am a Dell employee and I can tell you the future of the company is not manufacturing PCs or notebooks, but rather offering services-after-the sale for the machines built by contract manufacturers.
Well, if you’re planning to offer “services after the sale”, what do you have to offer that’s going to get me to open my wallet? I bought my last laptop 4 years ago. Do you know how much contact I’ve had with the manufacturer since I got it? None. No services. No upgrades. I didn’t buy the extended warranty. I haven’t sent the unit in for service. Granted, I can replace my own keyboard when it wears out, but I didn’t even buy THAT from them, I got it from an overstock place on the internet.
If Dell thinks that they are going to make money the way that car dealerships do, they’re mad. Of course, they aren’t. The real reason they’re outsourcing the manufacturing is money. They can have machines built in China for half of what it costs to build them in Round Rock. And you can bet your last dollar that they won’t be dropping their prices.