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Jan 08, 09 - 10:24 am Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

Always sad to see people lose their jobs, but at least it will give them more time for Guinness.

Jan 08, 09 - 10:28 am Comment from: hagar57

There was an assembler in Eire
Whose business didn't lead anywhere
He thought for a short while
Stacked his Dells in a trash pile
And gave the money back for the shares.

Okay, not the best, but I only had five minutes

"Selling crap for nothing" - Michael Dell's goal.

He can always make it up with lucrative pre-installed "crapware"

MDN take asks, "have they ever stopped a second to think what happens after outsource everything to the cheapest assemblers? Where are they going to find cheaper labor? Mars?"

I could ask a more pertinent question: Given that Apple now relies on contract manufacturers in one country - China - for virtually all its physical product, what will it do if that supply chain is interrupted? Worker strikes, business collapses, earthquakes, civil unrest - any of them could mean Apple can't deliver that shiny new thing you're lusting after.

Jan 08, 09 - 10:41 am Comment from: occams razor

@hagar57
made me laff, nice.

dull computers- assembled by really p*ssed about to be laid off Irish workers. I'm sure quality will be job1.

Market Share Shift!

IF

"Intel now expects fourth-quarter sales of $8.2 billion, a decline of 23% year-over-year." http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/19640/

AND

Apple sales are holding or growing as stated in the keynote.

THEN

There is a huge market share shift in Apple's favor!

MDN - "SIDAGTMBTTS"

Sounds like they're taking your advice for the first half...just a little at a time.

Why Poland?
There's no cheap labor in Poland.
Try Ukraine or other former Soviet Republic state country.

Actually, having worked at Dell (and Apple) I can tell you that they are probably not in all that bad of shape. They sell more computers than is imaginable and have 8 billion or so in cash.

The difference culturally between the two companies is that Dell will do things because some MBA a$$hole is preparing for a bad day and wants a fat bonus, Apple doesn't play into the modern day mission of a businessman. But, on the flip side, for every human Dell treats like a piece of meat Apple treats as incompetently retarded. Also, when a customer asks Dell to do something, they generally do it.

Why don't you ask Apple to change the way they sell you a computer, or maybe add a feature to their software? Good luck.

Don't get me wrong, I am typing on a Mac and am in it for the long haul and would love to see Dell implode, but I think its a little early to call it.

Jan 08, 09 - 11:06 am Comment from: Aldebaran

Wow! Let the Dell/Polish jokes begin! (btw, I am Polish-American myself).

Jan 08, 09 - 11:17 am Comment from: TowerTone

There once was a company called Dell
Whose computer sales drastically fell
When they finally shut the door
The investors were left wanting more
And yelled "Michael can go to Hell"

Jan 08, 09 - 11:17 am Comment from: Randian

Ya' know, Chuck, I take your observations about how Apple treats its potential customers with a grain of salt, simply because all--and I do mean ALL--independent research organizations that analyze customer service place Apple at the very top of the stack. And by an extremely large margin.

Perhaps you've had a less-than-satisfactory experience with them, but who hasn't had the very same (or much, much worse) experience with Dell trying to order one of their machines on the phone and getting about a half-dozen different price quotes from the same number of reps?

The market will decide who lives and dies, of course. But your analysis simply does not hold at this time.

@Aldebaran

"I am Polish-American myself"

Well, I'm not, but I have Polish friends and I don't think either of us is justified in denigrating your countrymen with nasty ethnic jokes. Not even to give Dull Computers a hard time of it.

@Rob 'There's no cheap labor in Poland'

Depends what you call cheap as against cheaper. Wages will likely be lower in Poland.

Then the operating costs and subsidies need to be added into the equation. Shipping boxes out of Eire will cost more than shipping boxes out of Poland.

Just how generous will the Polish be towards Dell? Who can tell?

Apple could move their plant from Cork, Ireland to a warmer and nicer place like Spain.

Chuck said: "Why don't you ask Apple to change the way they sell you a computer, or maybe add a feature to their software?"

What utter nonsense! Apple never had a retail store before before 2003. Just look at yesterdays Keynote. Fullscreen Pages was a direct result of customer suggestions.

And for an example I know, Aperture is entirely guided by what actual photogs want and have suggested.

Jan 08, 09 - 12:09 pm Comment from: macerroneous

So, after seeing SIDAGTMBTTS on the interwebs, I finally decided to look it up.
How ironic that I right-clicked on it using my Apple Mighty Mouse, connected to my Apple iMac, and that Apple's Safari took me back to the web where I learned the meaning of the anagram.
It's a good lesson for us all. Pride cometh before the fall.

Jan 08, 09 - 12:44 pm Comment from: Me on this iSland

@macerroneous
Cool - INKYCDT !

Google is funny. Doing a search I'm asked "Did you mean: SIDA GTM BTTS?" I had to laugh.

Jan 08, 09 - 12:46 pm Comment from: Me on this iSland

@Raymond in DC
Now I've done that with my acronym - LOL!

OK my turn

There once was an Irishman named Mick,
Who commented on Mike Dells dick.
He finally surmised
Why Mike's not circumcised
Because there was no end to that prick.

For Ray and others who are interested, the following is from Apple's 10Q:

Final assembly of the Company's products is currently performed in the Company's manufacturing facility in Cork, Ireland, and by external vendors in California, Korea, China and the Czech Republic. Currently, the supply and manufacture of many critical components is performed by sole-sourced third-party vendors in the US, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Singpore. Sole-sourced third-party vendors in China perform final assembly of substantially all of the Company's portable products, including MBP, MB, MBA, iPod and iPhone.

And yes, Apple is subject to the vagaries of natural disaster and other political, economic and social problems of those places, but so is everyone else.

Jan 08, 09 - 03:19 pm Comment from: KingMel

MDN's take can be applied in principle to other situations. For instance, WalMart. You can cut prices supported by the efficiencies of economy of scale. You can cut prices by forcing your suppliers to cut their prices and margins, which may push them offshore looking for cheaper labor to reduce their costs of production. You can reduce labor costs at WalMart by keeping salaries low and reducing or eliminating benefits. But you eventually hit a point of adverse consequences. For instance, products are cheapened to meet cost goals. And workers without health benefits or ready access to affordable preventative health care end up costing more to the overall system and burdening the emergency care rooms.

There are always consequences to our actions. But we are all too often focused on the short term benefits. For instance, it's cheaper to dump the pollution now, but more expensive to clean it up later. Alternative energy sources are more expensive now, but the costs/impacts of following our decades long fossil fuel approach could be much higher in the long run.

People think that they are smart. But humans also seem to believe that they are not subject to basic rules of nature. For instance, population growth cannot continue unchecked. Something will stop it - war, famine, pestilence...or a combination of the above. It would be smarter to choose a more palatable solution and avoid nature's hard fix.

Beleaguered MacDaily writers (hacks) can't find thesaurus.com on and learn a new word - forced to resort to hackneyed old standy headlines.

Sad, sad, sad.....