Unlike other PC makers, Dell builds its own notebooks, instead of buying them fully assembled from contract manufacturers. However, putting the pieces together in-house is more expensive. The question is whether the "Dell way"--a desktop manufacturing model--will work in the notebook era.
Is Dell ahead of the curve?
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There is nothing better than putting American workers to work! I would pay the cost to have jobs and profits stay in America. If we can get the bean counters to realize every purchase shouldn't hinge on lowest price.
Yes, they're ahead of the curve. Good for them! Lets hope it works as well for their laptops as it has for their desktops.
Too bad Dell notebooks have sucked for the longest time. Only their latest models have been up to par.
Too bad Dell notebooks have sucked for the longest time. Only their latest models have been up to par.
I would buy from Dell and even pay more just to know it's at least assembled here in America! I'm sick and tired of Corporate America shipping our jobs overseas. Go Dell!
We have the same thing in Australia. The real issue as somebody else noted is the "bottom line". Every CEO is trying to maximise the company share price because that is what the shareholders want. One of the issues is that all our pension funds select their investments on share price performance. No I am not a socialist, I smuggled bibles into Eastern Europe in the 1980's and believe me the standard of living was such that you wouldn't want to live like that. What is the answer I am not sure but I do think that our capitalist economies (and perhaps mentality ) needs at least a bit of adjustment.
I agree with the above posters. Keep the work in the U.S., and also, some of the money. Sending our money offshore is not helping our trade imbalance, either.
Supposedly Henry Ford paid his employees a little more so that they would have money to eventually buy one of his cars. I wish more American company personnel would think long term/nationally instead of basing decisions on the short term and what is directly in it for their retirement and personal wallet.
Supposedly Henry Ford paid his employees a little more so that they would have money to eventually buy one of his cars. I wish more American company personnel would think long term/nationally instead of basing decisions on the short term and what is directly in it for their retirement and personal wallet.
The opinion that assembly should be done here in the States is all well and good, but I wonder if those who agree with this opinion are willing to pay more for Dell notebooks if this were the case? As we all know, labor costs overseas are significantly less than here in the US. If Dell were to assemble here, they would no doubt pass along the higher labor costs to the consumer. I would venture to guess that not as many companies would be willing to accept a price increase when they could get less expensive notebooks elsewhere that would be comparable to what Dell has to offer.
It's gotten to the point that if we as Americans are not willing to pay a little more for American made products that there is a very good possiblity that we won't be able to afford even the cheaper offshore brands. I don't know many folks with a McJob that can do you?
As an end-user consumer, I would agree with you; however, are you a CFO of a Fortune 500 company whose main concern is the bottom line? Trust me when I say that they do not care one iota where it is made, only how much it will cost and what is the ROI of the asset. That is the base which Dell and most other mainstream computer suppliers target.
I agree, CIO?s measure one thing and one thing only and that is the bottom line.
If a vendor has a selling proposition being that ?we are cheaper than any other tier 1? then they are going to be heard way beyond the IT Departments recommendations ?well for the best part anyway?. If the IT department along with the vendor can not easily justify other ?Value Adds? with identifiable ROI?s then the argument will typically fall on deaf ears.
Personally I believe that ?buying local? does have a value add to any purchase, it?s just a matter of how do you go into bat to sell that concept to the financial decision makers.
This is where the Value Add needs to be creative and something that is personal to the business, which can sometime be found inside the company?s policy, mission statements market strategy etc.
DELL are a real problem for HP, Toshiba IBM and the like, as the DELL value proposition is ?we are the cheapest?, however when DELL are supplying newer technologies faster than that of their opposition and also cheaper for the new technology, where can one begin to argue.
HP, Toshiba, IBM and other Tier 1?s really need to have a strong hard look at the market and help their channel partners ?Value Added Resellers? add value back into their product or DELL will gain more momentum and open up an even great lead and then more and more jobs will go into the outsourced ?O/S market?.
If a vendor has a selling proposition being that ?we are cheaper than any other tier 1? then they are going to be heard way beyond the IT Departments recommendations ?well for the best part anyway?. If the IT department along with the vendor can not easily justify other ?Value Adds? with identifiable ROI?s then the argument will typically fall on deaf ears.
Personally I believe that ?buying local? does have a value add to any purchase, it?s just a matter of how do you go into bat to sell that concept to the financial decision makers.
This is where the Value Add needs to be creative and something that is personal to the business, which can sometime be found inside the company?s policy, mission statements market strategy etc.
DELL are a real problem for HP, Toshiba IBM and the like, as the DELL value proposition is ?we are the cheapest?, however when DELL are supplying newer technologies faster than that of their opposition and also cheaper for the new technology, where can one begin to argue.
HP, Toshiba, IBM and other Tier 1?s really need to have a strong hard look at the market and help their channel partners ?Value Added Resellers? add value back into their product or DELL will gain more momentum and open up an even great lead and then more and more jobs will go into the outsourced ?O/S market?.
I just recently bought an M6300 to replace an m65 that was given to a new colleague. It was an excellent value. Big chunk of a notebook but I wanted the screen size and the Video capability for CAD work. Not the biggest Dell fan out there but this notebook was the best bang for the buck and so far flawless.
my M6300 was assembled in ireland, warms the cockles of my heart.
By keeping it in house they control the quality, and they can make changes quicker then those that outsource. Now which do you think has the best interest of the customer in mind?
DELL Has the best PR people in the industry,
Personally I own a Inspiron 6000 that has a flakey DVDRW and an S-Video that has never worked and DELL tells me that everything works fine. But Its not bad as the mother board is made by some company in Taiwan. Maybe Compel or Wistron. DELL Does not manufacture anything, they just do the final configuration, I would like to see one of these manufacturing plants. HP, DELL, Toshiba and most of the other brand names these days build very little as they do not have the capacity. As a note up until earlier this year SamSung manufactured two of the Latitude models and lost the contract to Wistron (a Spin off from Acer). If DELL is such a great manufacturer like you are telling everyone how can these companies be doing this work for DELL. DELL Does do the final assembly and employes probably not enough people to do it. HP has an assembly plant in Ontario.
Take a read on Digitimes.com sometimes to see who does what for who. I have an HP Pavilion with a motherboard from ASUS (Designed by HP and built by ASUS).
Long live the clones.
Personally I own a Inspiron 6000 that has a flakey DVDRW and an S-Video that has never worked and DELL tells me that everything works fine. But Its not bad as the mother board is made by some company in Taiwan. Maybe Compel or Wistron. DELL Does not manufacture anything, they just do the final configuration, I would like to see one of these manufacturing plants. HP, DELL, Toshiba and most of the other brand names these days build very little as they do not have the capacity. As a note up until earlier this year SamSung manufactured two of the Latitude models and lost the contract to Wistron (a Spin off from Acer). If DELL is such a great manufacturer like you are telling everyone how can these companies be doing this work for DELL. DELL Does do the final assembly and employes probably not enough people to do it. HP has an assembly plant in Ontario.
Take a read on Digitimes.com sometimes to see who does what for who. I have an HP Pavilion with a motherboard from ASUS (Designed by HP and built by ASUS).
Long live the clones.
It is true, Dell does NOT make the parts, but they do do the assembly of them. They contract out to people to make the parts for them... however, when it comes to DESIGNING the system, Dell DOES do that... and then they find people who can make the motherboards/power supplies/rest of the parts to fit into the portables/desktops.
For instance, a lot of the Dell portables use Intel based motherboards, as far as the processor and chipset goes. If dell made the chipset and processor, they wouldn't have the Intel band name on them. It would have Dell's...
Another example... Dell OEM cd's... they have Dell's name on it because they do make some changes to the OS per an agreement MS and Dell has with each other, however MS provides the CD keys and MS will not give us the right to generate our own keys. The Dell OEM OS cds , even though they have DELL on it, also has Microsoft's name on it. Everything Dell has used, in most cases, has been done by someone else. They may come up with the ideas and assemble them, but they definitely do not do most the work. Even software wise... the dell quickset and the dell controlpoint software... it wasn't really made in house. EVEN the software we use to pull up our customers info is made by someone else outside Dell.
Dell's stock is now at 11 something a share. Dell may soon feel like they have to move a lot of their tech support over seas because their stock has been lower then it has in a long time, but so has HP and a lot of other companies. Currently, the only business lines that have dedicated USA call centers are the SMB and CBG (small medium business and corporations such as schools, hospitals, government). All other will most likely get supported in the Philippines and over in India and if you WANT dedicated support in the U.S.A., if you are not part of the smb/cbg line, you have to pay a little extra to have it. And as I said before, I would not be surprised if eventually everything moved over seas..
For instance, a lot of the Dell portables use Intel based motherboards, as far as the processor and chipset goes. If dell made the chipset and processor, they wouldn't have the Intel band name on them. It would have Dell's...
Another example... Dell OEM cd's... they have Dell's name on it because they do make some changes to the OS per an agreement MS and Dell has with each other, however MS provides the CD keys and MS will not give us the right to generate our own keys. The Dell OEM OS cds , even though they have DELL on it, also has Microsoft's name on it. Everything Dell has used, in most cases, has been done by someone else. They may come up with the ideas and assemble them, but they definitely do not do most the work. Even software wise... the dell quickset and the dell controlpoint software... it wasn't really made in house. EVEN the software we use to pull up our customers info is made by someone else outside Dell.
Dell's stock is now at 11 something a share. Dell may soon feel like they have to move a lot of their tech support over seas because their stock has been lower then it has in a long time, but so has HP and a lot of other companies. Currently, the only business lines that have dedicated USA call centers are the SMB and CBG (small medium business and corporations such as schools, hospitals, government). All other will most likely get supported in the Philippines and over in India and if you WANT dedicated support in the U.S.A., if you are not part of the smb/cbg line, you have to pay a little extra to have it. And as I said before, I would not be surprised if eventually everything moved over seas..
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