“Computer manufacturer Gateway announced to close its 188 retail stores in the US. The company plans to pursue its sales through its website and retail channels. The decision to return to its roots was a widely anticipated move by analysts reflecting the firm’s cost cutting strategy. ‘It is not a real surprise,’ said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with market research firm Gartner. ‘Gateway’s problem is their cost structure,'” Wolfgang Gruener reports for Tom’s Hardware Guide.
“Reynolds also sees the closure of the stores which will eliminate about 2,500 jobs as an effect of Gateway’s acquisition of eMachines. It would be more effective for Gateway to expand its presence in retail stores such as Best Buy or Circuit City, an environment eMachines is familiar with, Reynolds said,” Gruener reports. “While Gateway had trouble making the store model work, Apple took a similar approach and appears to be able to boost its sales. According to the company, Apple stores postes an 83 percent increase in customer traffic in 2003, $273 million in revenue and $9 million profit.” Full article here.
Apple Computer, Inc. recently opened its fifth flagship store in San Francisco, bringing their total to 76 retail stores which have hosted more than 30 million visitors since the first Apple retail store opened in May 2001. The Apple Store San Francisco is the company
Hey, what the H-E-L-L, MDN, “beleaguered” is trademarked by Apple, you can’t use that…. to describe a PC box assembler, that’s not right!!!
I don’t like cows much! Mooo!
Gateway closes it’s stores, Apple opens ’em – yet Gateway continues to sell more and more boxes, but Apple’s numbers decline – people just don’t learn.
“Does not compute, does not compute, does not compute!”
Well now. Who is going to buy a Gateway computer? The company is dying and whoever buys a computer from them will end up with no support.
Gee, it’s nice to use the same argument that people had in mid-90’s against Apple and direct that towards Gateway, the king of crappy computer.
I’ve been noticing Gateway computers showing up in my local Wal-Mart. Times must be getting tough for the cow.
It should be noted that Apple has 78 stores OPEN worldwide, NOT “poised to open 77th outlet”.
“[…] yet Gateway continues to sell more and more boxes, but Apple’s numbers decline”
Bzzt. Thanks for playing.
Q4 2003, Gateway shipped 526,000 PCs. In the same quarter, Apple shipped 829,000 Macintoshes.
I also read somewhere about the merger between Gateway and eMachines and the two combined had shipments of 900,000+ machines. Not significantly higher than Apple.
Try again.
comparing cows and apples… gee!
After Apple sells tons of $99 pro care cards, they’ll need to hire a bunch more mac geniuses to handle all the traffic. I smell an opportunity for somebody!
Hmm.. Peter, I stand corrected, thanks for the info. My rather flippant and negative nancy attitude towards the State of the Mac, can at times be completely wrong.
‘Oh woe is me!’
Gateway just announced that the are moving their entire headquarters from San Diego to Orange County just so their sissy CEO dosen’t have to move. What a waste of resources. This is how the new Gateway/eMachines company begins its life…wasting valuable company money to satisfy the spoiled brat who is now in charge of running it! Time to heat up the BBQ!
How about a word of sympathy for 2500 people who just lost their jobs. Gateway may make undesirable computers, but they were sold in stores by people who depended on the company for a living. I take no joy in the failure of this PC company.
Yes, what Lee said. Each of those 2,500 people are connected to a family. There is no joy in Gateway-ville tonight. I hope that those folks can get new jobs quickly- perhaps they can apply at some of those new Apple stores that are opning up!
Seeing as they may be more in retail than IT, they have a much better chance at getting another job … as long as they don’t insist on selling computers.
No big surprise,, Gateway builds junk. After asking me for advice on buying computers both my cousin and my uncle bought gateways instead. They both have problems with the gateways, and complain to me about them. I had to tell my cousin to stop complaining to me about it because I am not a Gateway support person. I told her that if she had bought the imac I recommended she probally wouldnt have so many problems. She just married a photogragher (who is a big mac guy too) so when they get back from their honeymoon, that gateway will probally be in the trash where it belongs.
This is no surprise…. Who wants to go to a “store” but still have to order a pc and “wait” for delivery….
Daniel Williams has provided one important factor that affected Gateway�s downfall. Any others?
Only a couple of years ago Gateway had a ‘bricks and mortar’ presence in many UK High Streets! In Exeter, my home city, Gateway’s passing was marked by the opening of an always overpriced Virgin Megastore (sans iPods)!
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http://homepage.mac.com/johnhood
Take note analysts of the true definition of “beleaguered” and quit using it in association with Apple. A company with $4.8 Billion in cash and zero debt is hardly “beleaguered”!!!
Out with the old, in with the new…
or in this case
Out with the crappy cow PCs and in the the elegant Macs.
I haven’t seen “beleaguered” associated with Apple in months. That would be scary if I was a contrarian.
Apple appears to be slowly and steadily gaining momentum. It has been a long time coming, but be prepared for an Apple breakout year.
By the way, I must admit that the IBM/MacOS X April Fools story had me going for a few minutes. In sounded very plausible in some ways, especially if IBM and Apple agreed to split up and focus on high-end and low-end servers, respectively.
I would not rejoice in this at all. Now there is less competition and less choice for the consumer and especially now more power and control for Dell No! Gateway at least took a page from Apples’s book and was the most “different” of the PC clones. I would never purchase a PC, but if I had no choice, I would have probably chosen a Cow machine. Hopefully more people will look towards a quality Mac rather than default towards the king of plain jane cheap cheesy Dell No machine.
I’m not totally sold on the breakout year for Apple idea yet. Too many people are waiting for the G5 Powerbook or the next Power Mac. I’d love to get a new Mac, but I’ll be holding out for a more affordable G5, and I’m sure a lot of others are doing the same.
I am waiting for the G5 Powerbook myself and am hoping for Summer, anticipating Fall, and desperate for at least by Winter.
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I know of a nice empty spot for a new Apple store . . . oh, wait, the location actually sucks!!
I wish the computer industry would start getting a clue about the difference between Apple computers and the PC.
With an average life expectancy of 4-6 years, the sales numbers for Macintosh boxes can hardly be compared to inferior PC hardware that is lucky to last 3 years before needing major repair or replacement.
Although this simple reality is something a 5 year old can easily grasp, the so called experts and most PC users seem incapable of understanding this glaring, obvious difference between the two hardware platforms.
Perhaps if they actually spent more than 5 minutes using a Mac they would start to understand. But then again, considering this group’s unbridled passion for talking out their asses about all things Apple, we are more likely to see pigs fly. ;o)