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Best thing they can do is to sell the company and give the money to the shareholders...

If you'll recall, Dell was right on top of this whole thing. Remember, they hired noted expert / industry analyst / pundit / generally incredibly brilliant guy Rob Enderle to consult with them on what their new Dell phone should look like.

So, while the WSJ claims that Dell did nothing, he's clearly wrong. By hiring Enderle, Dell didn't just stand still. They actively handicapped themselves. They dug a hole, climbed in, then kept digging. Way to go!

Seems to me that Dell is being run by Mckinsey consultants.

gives steve a stiffy

apple should just team up with goldsacks and short this bitch to ZERO!!!!!

turn that 30 billion into 90 billion on dells back

it would be more but you have to give GS major kick backs to make it happen

come on Apple short dell!!!!!!

Dec 07, 09 - 10:47 am Comment from: Connor MacBook

I think Bob means risk-averse

Dec 07, 09 - 10:50 am Comment from: Jubei

Bring back the DELL DJ Titty err Ninny or pee pee. Forget it, I can't remember that POS they brought out years ago.

Dec 07, 09 - 11:00 am Comment from: LTD*

Competing on Price?

Hey Dell, aren't you already doing that, along with HP, Lenovo, and the other junk-box makers?

How about competing on QUALITY and INNOVATION??

Apple doesn't actually move faster, but they are anticipating or creating new trends much earlier.

Apple probably needs at least as long to bring their products to market (tablet, anyone?), but they're already on the next future track when the others are still fully possessed by the past.

MDN word: answer

Dec 07, 09 - 11:34 am Comment from: TigerCliff

Dell has optimized the heck out of their operations to the point they have zero innovation. Yes, they're basically an assembler ... but competing solely on price is a dangerous game, and they're losing.

BTW, I have a friend who went to high school with Michael Dell in Texas. He asked her out but she thought he was a "dork" (her words). She jokes that she should have taken him more seriously... but I thinks he's out to prove her right after all these years.

"Seems to me that Dell is being run by McKinsey consultants."

Good comment.

When a business has no leadership whatever they turn to McKinseys. I've seen it happen...

Dell skates to the where the puck was....uttering the phrase

"What the puck was that?"

Dec 07, 09 - 11:42 am Comment from: Ray

The current generation of brilliant baby boomer employees at the "mot" wireless (Plantation and Libertyville) division have destroyed one of the most successful microelectronics companies of all time. This guy is going to bury Dell. Good riddance Mikey!

just my $0.02

That they have Ron Garriques in charge of the unit should be more telling than their lethargy.

Dec 07, 09 - 12:19 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Why is Dell creating a mobile division, anyway?

My guess is they will use this newly formed division as a launch pad for a newly focused Dell.

In the mobile space race, they wouldn't have to compete with Apple to be successful, they could place third and still make a boatload of money. Before that can happen though, two things must occur.

First, they need a smartphone. Any phone will do, even a rebranded one would be good enough to compete. But, they have to focus their energy, time and money, in developing a synergy using the best mobile products they have to offer, including laptops et. al.

Secondly, they need to get out of the desktop PC space altogether.

Their current business model created a consumer desktop PC market that is no longer sustainable. They passed the point of diminished returns in a race to the bottom over price years ago, as evidenced by the fact that their customer service is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of questions, complaints, and returns of both good and defective merchandise.

Dell can no longer pretend its sales force isn’t choking the life out of the company.

They should shut down the PC division or sell it off and use the capital to reinvent themselves.

Dec 07, 09 - 12:47 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

Dell's only worth is in keeping UPS guys busy.

@G4Dualie:

How would Dell getting into the smartphone race be any different from their PC business?

Since they're new to the smartphone business, how could they hope to compete against the likes of Nokia or Motorola or even Palm, who all have long track records in the phone/smartphone space?

Dell's only innovation was in their customized computer assembly and shipping systems, which really did change those aspects of many industries, Apple included. Otherwise, their products' only truly compelling feature has been low price. Sony, Toshiba and HP (and now I suppose Asus) beat them everywhere else.

So, how does a glorified shipping company ever hope to compete with companies where packaging and shipping are the LAST items on the list?

The day Dell closes it's doors will be a day that EVERY seasoned Mac user rejoices!

Dec 07, 09 - 12:49 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

@pr
"Dell skates to the where the puck was..."

Dell's answer: "What's a puck?"

Dec 07, 09 - 12:54 pm Comment from: HughB

Maybe Dell cannot go against the iPhone, but I think the Android will overtake the iPhone. The iPhone appeals to prius driving sushi eating Starbucks types while the Droid and others to follow are targeting the tattoed pickup driving beer drinking macho men. I think the iPhone has saturated its target market and has little growth from here on. And AAPL shows it, dropping more than $18 the past ten day. Look for it to hit $78 again like a year ago. Verizon is killing th iPhone with their ads and ATT and Apple have weak response ads. YMMV.

Dec 07, 09 - 01:11 pm Comment from: Botvinnik

Hugh, in further developments, Sony is bringing back the BetaMax.

Dec 07, 09 - 01:15 pm Comment from: Botvinnik

oh yeah Hugh, and The Beatles are getting back together. Have you been on our planet long?

Dec 07, 09 - 01:17 pm Comment from: SmartyGuy

@HughB

You are ignorant. AAPL near-term stock price doesn't say anything about the company's long-term prospects. They are two completely different things.

Dec 07, 09 - 01:22 pm Comment from: pastrychef

"[Finally], the company launched two Android-based smartphones last month: one in China with China Mobile and the second in Brazil with America Movil. Despite the fact that China Mobile is the world’s largest cellular provider, Dell’s Mini 3i is one of several Android-based smartphones vying for attention on the network. What’s to differentiate? Nothing!"

This is precisely the reason why all these manufacturers who are jumping on the Android bandwagon are doomed. Eventually, it will end up being a commoditized business just like the PC box making business. You figure these guys would've learned from their experience in making boxes that run Windows... Sigh...

Garbage in, Garbage out.

Nothing motivated Steve more that what Michael Dell said years ago about giving the shareholders their money back...anyone else remember the bullseye at the keynote?

SIDAGTMBTTS again?!!!
You MDN guys are ruthless.

Dec 07, 09 - 02:00 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

@HughB
"the Droid and others to follow are targeting the tattoed pickup driving beer drinking macho men"

You mean the mindless drones who don't have, nor can they use, computers?

Dec 07, 09 - 02:22 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@Mr reeeeeeee

Excuse me if I don't pick up my pom poms and cheer along with the rest of you "seasoned" Mac users.

Mikey Dell stuck his foot in his mouth big time, at a time Dell was enjoying a surge in the marketplace. I think he's since learned who the better man is and will keep his mouth shut about Apple anymore, don't you?

SIDAGTMBTTS? Didn't happen to Apple and it won't happen to Dell.

As I recall, Apple was desperate to turn things around and I firmly believe that had they not bought NeXT and acquiring Steven P. Jobs in the deal, Apple would be gone already. Either that or Power Computing and a group of shadowy financiers would have taken over the company and renamed it Power Apple or Apple Power or some such crap.

But hey, Apple turned it all around. The changes I have witnessed in Apple in the last twenty-five years has been nothing short of phenomenal and the turn-around has been miraculous. But something else changed in Apple and me as well. Life's too short for reprisals and vendettas.

Apple needs the Dells of the world, without 'em Apple would stagnate and stop innovating. I'd like to think that Mikey Dells words cut Jobs so deeply that it forced him to think different.

Some of Jobs' moves have been questioned by us all, have they not? Talk about thinking different!

First, with iMac, eschewing the floppy disk! Everyone snickered.

Then came NeXTStep OS X, which was wholly rejected by the "seasoned" Mac users. I've read on these boards how fond some still are of Mac OS! Are you kidding me?

Then came an Apple mp3 player in a market flooded with players. Like the iPhone, Apple was moving into a space they had no previous knowledge or experience in but that didn't stop them. They bought SoundJam MP if I'm not mistaken, and changed whole industries!

Then Apple embraced Microsoft, followed by Intel, causing some "seasoned" Mac veteran's to declare Apple evil, having turned to the dark side.

Jobs grew up during his hiatus away from Apple. Those were his really formative years and just when he couldn't sink any lower, he was driven to his epiphany to save himself, by saving Apple.

Mikey Dell will have his too. He'll make deep cuts and start all over again, drawing on that entrepreneurial spirit that pushed him decades ago.

Times change. People change.

Instead of thinking alike, perhaps you "seasoned" Mac users should drop the vendetta and get on with your lives. I know Steve Jobs and I have.

Cheers!

Dell is skating where the puke is.

mw: returned; how appropriate.

@G4Dualie

Duuuude... you are 'del"usional, Mikey Dell is an idiot that happened to be fantastically lucky. (like Uncle fester, hey it happens... look at the lottery winners) Assuming he continues to lead, it is very likely that Dell will continue to slide, eventually, to it's demise.

I recall a decade (or so) ago seeing a Charlie Rose interview with Dell and thought at the time, "is this guy really this big of an idiot or is there something I just don't get". (that interview is worth the a look BTW it shows more plainly that anything else why dell is doomed (and has been for some time)

Dec 07, 09 - 03:03 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Yeah well cousin, we all have to fall off the bottom sometimes in order to regain ourselves.

I mean look at your cousin? It's hard to believe a body like that can even sustain life but hey, miracles do happen.

Dell dug it's own grave, it turned computers into cheap commodities that had a very low profit margin, geee just the business I want to be in, one with a low profit margin. Also, they didn't have an operating system, if you're going to turn the hardware business into a low profit, at least make money off the software.

Dec 07, 09 - 04:36 pm Comment from: Dave H

G4Dualie

Michael Dell had one good idea and got very rich on it. He was the first in the industry to run on lowered margins just to gain share, then use that share to leverage component prices. The trouble is, everybody else eventually wised up, updated their own business plans, and followed suit.

The moment HP started dropping their prices to compete Dell's model was compromised. When you're running on such low margins you cannot cut further without compromising quality.

Dell has made an absolute fortune, but he isn't the visionary-type. He doesn't have anything else to pull out of the bag.

If I were him I'd sell up and go play golf.

How can Michael Dell, the stooge, do anything without MS instructing him? If MS has no clue, then Dell surely doesn't. Dell is rudderless.

Dec 07, 09 - 05:10 pm Comment from: montex

The irony is that Dell is making better products than ever and yet their profit margins are in the "why bother?" range. I use a Dell Inspiron laptop every day for work (it's required, but they let me have a Mac, too) and it has been a solid performer. Granted, it has the soul of a cardboard box, but it does its job. Their other product lines have improved considerably in the past 5 years. I wouldn't buy their cheapest stuff but everything over $1K is decent enough.

Dec 07, 09 - 05:38 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@Dave H

G4Dualie

Michael Dell had one good idea and got very rich on it. He was the first in the industry to run on lowered margins just to gain share, then use that share to leverage component prices. The trouble is, everybody else eventually wised up, updated their own business plans, and followed suit.

The moment HP started dropping their prices to compete Dell's model was compromised. When you're running on such low margins you cannot cut further without compromising quality.

Dell has made an absolute fortune, but he isn't the visionary-type. He doesn't have anything else to pull out of the bag.

If I were him I'd sell up and go play golf.

bold words added for emphasis by me... to illustrate how you're projecting your own lack of ideas onto Mikey Dell. You can't imagine what a captain of industry would do when confronted by the reality that he's losing his ass.

As for the rest of your post, I said as much in an earlier post:

'Their current business model created a consumer desktop PC market that is no longer sustainable. They passed the point of diminished returns in a race to the bottom over price years ago, as evidenced by the fact that their customer service is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of questions, complaints, and returns of both good and defective merchandise.'

So you're preaching to the choir. Trouble is, you're out of ideas and ready to retire. People like Dell and Jobs don't give up that easily.

Mikey Dell is half the man Steven P Jobs is, but I'm not about to write him off just because he had a brain fart once. He returned to a company that was already on the brink of collapse and he's been hemorrhaging money since, but just like Jobs, he will make deep cuts in manufacturing, logistics, and his Madison Avenue ad agency, but not before choosing a new direction for Dell. He could get out of the PC business and no one would care. It's that simple. His company has made a mess of customer service and is doing more damage to hurt the brand than their cheap shitty computers.

I've been at this since '79 and if there's one thing I"m dead certain about it's, people read what they need, not what they want. Like what, no one else is allowed to have an opinion?

I can't win around here.

If it's not the trolls, who by the way are anyone with a contrary opinion, it's the seasoned Mac users, who are in a rut from thinking they are in lockstep with Steven P Jobs, until he sidesteps the bag of hurt that is their way of thinking. Thinking alike, is not thinking different, nor does it make you a fanbois, but come on!

That statement of mine above, could have just as easily have been applied to Apple in 1996, replacing the word price with quality and they're opposite sides of the same coin.

I know I'm contrary, but no one can deny I'm not making good business sense. Many of you just can't bear to put your emotions aside where business is concerned and debate this openly. Instead I'm witness to Town Hall meetings gone bad.

The Young Turks (Apple's fanbois) are full of piss and vinegar, huh? They wanna' cap somebody for dissin' day mane! The foolish among you, choose to stew in your own hatred for Dell just because you let him hurt your feelings once.

Go AAPL!

Dec 07, 09 - 05:40 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@Montex

You know, I've heard Dell monitors being recommended 'round here.

Dec 07, 09 - 06:21 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

@G4Dualie...

Yeah, but those monitors are made by others with a Dell logo slapped on the front. Personally, I'd get ill staring at a Dell logo all day.

I have a ViewSonic anti-glare monitor, btw.

Dec 07, 09 - 06:25 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@mr reeeeeeeeeeeee'

How would Dell getting into the smartphone race be any different from their PC business?

You tell me, you're so smart, surely you have an original idea of your own, no?

Dec 07, 09 - 08:00 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Personally, I'd get ill staring at a Dell logo all day.

Me too, that's why I'd never own anything made by them. Unless of course I could pop the logo off the front bezel of one of their monitors.

Their twenty-four inch LCD was pretty decent on price and when I'm sitting in the dark killing zombies, I don't much care what the exterior looks like.

Dec 07, 09 - 09:57 pm Comment from: neomonkey

Like what, no one else is allowed to have an opinion?

G4Dualie, perhaps what's confusing you is while you're entitled to your own opinion, you're not entitled to your own facts, and that's what people are discussing here.

Oh, and btw, the word is pompons. Pom poms are the big dual guns on naval destroyers.

Yeah, all Mikey needs to do to save Dell is buy NeXT and re-hire Steve Jobs.

...Oh.

Your idea that Dell can triumphantly rise from the ashes like Apple did ignores the reality that Apple could save itself because they had a visionary living in exile and his bleeding-edge computer company to rescue them.

Dell on the other hand, who the fuck do they have to ride in and save them? What visionary do they have waiting in exile to replace Mikey?

Forget good business sense, you aren't even making any kind of sense. Deep cuts? Start over? Dell has honed itself so razor thin that deep cuts are no longer possible. To start over they'd have to turn back the clock to a time when their business model wasn't being copied by everybody and their dog.

As for Mikey having an epiphany, that idiot is the reason Dell is in the toilet to begin with. "Duuuuuuuh, our mission is selling cheap hardware. Profit margins? Fuck 'em, they just inflate the cost! I WANT TO BE MAKING PENNIES FROM WHAT WE SELL, OR EVEN BETTER, A LOSS! Yeeehaw, now that's what I call doin' business!". He's too dumb for an epiphany.

The only way to save his company is to completely forget about competing on price, and that won't happen. Your insitence that he's going to miraculously rebound is baffling.

Dec 08, 09 - 12:23 am Comment from: derekcurrie

I'd be interested to learn what exactly is going on within the Dell Computer work culture. It has essentially taken Dell only two years to fall from a reputation as the best Windows PC box provider to being known as one of the worst. It sounds like a rapid case of senility.

Perhaps we should have foreseen Michael Dell's encroaching dementia when he first made his tard-worthy SIDAGTMBTTS comment regarding Apple.

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SIDAGTMBTTS

Dec 09, 09 - 01:36 am Comment from: G4Dualie

@ @g4dualie

The only way to save his company is to completely forget about competing on price, and that won't happen.

What're you simple or something?

Dec 09, 09 - 01:57 am Comment from: G4Dualie

@neomonkey
Oh, and btw, the word is pompons. Pom poms are the big dual guns on naval destroyers.

The fact is, if you google pom poms, the first page of hits to appear are cheerleading websites selling both pom poms and pom pons.

You know what else neomonkey, other than your attempt to school me on cheerleading equipment, you haven't added anything to the discussion.

You skipped the article and who knows what else, just to single me out? Fine, it cuts both ways there Spanky, I'll be fact checking you from now on, so I hope you're ready for this. If fact I see no reason not to search your name to see what turns up.

See ya' round campus, pal.

Dec 09, 09 - 04:05 pm Comment from: ditchdoc68

I thought this was rather appropriate.
http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-12-09/