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A News.com report on the leading maker of PCs.

September 26, 2005 5:09 PM PDT

Dell's coming out party this week

Dell is set to launch a new premium brand targeted at its high-end home customers at an event this week at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City.

This is the so-called "Lexus" product line that the company promised to deliver back in June. The new brand will sit just above its Dimension and Inspiron product families, the PC maker said at the time.

The desktop and notebooks are expected to have starting prices between $1,200 and $3,500 respectively and pre-configured with the most advanced Intel processors, networking technologies, and service contracts. Dell said the new line is for consumers who are PC gaming enthusiasts, working with digital photography and/or music, or those who want to use watch television on their PCs.

The event will also highlight Dell's new sales push into all-in-one printers, digital music players as well as LCD and plasma TVs, where it is expected to make a huge impact in the marketplace.

Chairman Michael Dell will be joined by Dell vice president Mike George for the event.

Posted by Michael Singer
September 21, 2005 3:07 PM PDT

Wise-cracking McNealy needles rivals

Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy took potshots at many of his peers in the computing industry during a keynote address Tuesday--even at Larry Ellison, leader of the company hosting the Oracle OpenWorld conference at which McNealy spoke before an audience of 12,000.

Shortly after introducing servers based on Sun's new UltraSparc IV+ processor, McNealy showed a slide picturing him in jeans and Ellison in characteristically sharp attire. "That suit! You can buy 14 of our new servers for that suit," McNealy quipped.

He also listed the supposed song playlist on Ellison's iPod: "Hey, Big Spender," "I Like Big," "Turning Japanese," "Come Sail Away" and "I'm Too Sexy."

And he remarked on Oracle's aggressive acquisition strategy. "Technology has the shelf life of a banana. Everything you buy from us, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, or anybody is going to be obsolete in 18 months, or end-of-lifed, or bought by Oracle."

McNealy also jabbed Hewlett-Packard's new CEO, Mark Hurd, by putting words into his mouth: "Who needs a strategy? We need to execute!"

Dell CEO Kevin Rollins didn't get a personal slight, but his company did. "Imagine if everyone on the planet got up in the morning and turned on their Xeon Dell PCs. You think we have a global warming problem now? Move away from the shores! There's not enough power, enough oil, enough energy on the planet to drive that compute model," McNealy said.

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano also got an iPod playlist--songs included "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for"--as well as a product jab. "The mainframe is easily the least cost-effective piece of computing equipment ever. If it was an airplane, it would have pedals on it," McNealy said.

Posted by Stephen Shankland
September 12, 2005 11:55 AM PDT

Oklahoma center is OK for Dell

(With multiple apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Chicks and ducks and geese are going to scurry now that computer-making giant Dell has opened a new customer contact center in Oklahoma.

The 60-acre site along the Oklahoma River is part of the city's massive riverfront development project. The facility currently houses more than 800 people. Many a new day will dawn before that number could expand by an additional 200 workers by 2006, Dell said.

The first building is as high as an elephant's eye, (and it looks like it's climbing' clear up to the sky) and was finished 14 months after Dell said it would move in.

Earlier this summer, the company said it has commenced on a second Dell building at the site where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain.

The customer center is part of Dell's expansion plans to handle its expected influx of calls related to an increase of sales of Dell PCs, laptops, televisions and handheld devices.

Dell said the center has even hired specialists to handle questions from small to midsize businesses and consumers, as well as the addition of the public-sector and corporate accounts Dell serves.

And for Dell, which just can't say no, the specialized customer support is O-K (L-A-H-O-M-A).

Posted by Michael Singer
August 29, 2005 12:24 AM PDT

Dell's friends start to move in

Looks like Dell will have some familiar faces living in the neighborhood when it opens its 700,000 square-foot facility in North Carolina on October 5.

The Greensboro News Record reported over the weekend that World Wide Technology, a St. Louis-based company is delivering boxes to its new digs in north High Point, a community near Interstate 40 next week.

World Wide helps Dell coordinate its 50 suppliers that assist the computer maker with storage, packaging, and building the computers. The two have teemed together previously at Dell's plants in Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.

Two of those suppliers are also moving close by, according to the News Record. Austin Foam Plastics is leasing a 55,190-square-foot facility and APL Logistics out of California is leasing a 315,000-square-foot facility. Both warehouses are located in Winston-Salem.

When completed this summer, the plant in Alliance Science and Technology Park will provide nearly 2,000 jobs in the next five years and be Dell's third and largest plant in the United States.

The new Dell plant has been a bit overshadowed by a controversy over cash and incentives that Dell received just to move into North Carolina.

The state put up nearly $245 million in cash and tax breaks. Local governments pitched in another $30 million. Governor Mike Easley supports the idea of handing Dell incentives to come to North Carolina.

Lawyers for the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL) cried foul and now have a 69-page complaint pending in the courts to try and amend the terms of Dell's moving in party.

Posted by Michael Singer
August 16, 2005 11:12 AM PDT

Time servers are on Dell's side

Dell went on a shopping spree this week for servers that help synchronize the time of an atomic clock with all of the servers and PCs connected to a network.

The guys over in Round Rock plunked down $995,000 worth of equipment from San Jose, Calif.-based Symmetricom for its TymServe 2100 GPS network time servers. The price tag also included related hardware such as lightning rods for the rooftop to prevent an electrical storm from taking down the system.

So just what does Dell want to do with these servers? Well, they are not for Dell. Apparently, they are for an undisclosed customer that Dell is working with and more than likely it will be a closed network, according to a Symmetricom representative.

Dell declined to expand on the publicly stated contract.

These are pretty powerful systems that can be used by government agencies and corporations that need to keep all of their computers in sync, like a financial intuition or telecommunications provider, the Symmetricom rep said.

According to Symmetricom, the TymServe 2100 syncs with the GPS satellite constellation, IRIG (Inter-Range Instrumentation Group) time code or dialup time services from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or United States Naval Observatory (USNO) and then distributes the time using the Network Time Protocol.

So whoever the lucky Dell client is, they will have a well-timed network.

Posted by Michael Singer
August 12, 2005 4:13 PM PDT

Dell opens new customer centers

Dell announced intent to open two new customer centers next year to help server its American and Filipino customers.

The No. 1 computer maker said it will open a customer contact center in Makati City, Philippines early next year to assist people the Metro-Manila area. The site will initially host 700 technical support and customer service agents and 70 key leadership and administrative positions.

Separately, Dell signed a lease this week for 156,000 square feet of office space in the Kanata region in the west end of Ottawa. The site is expected to begin operation in February 2006 and will eventually host 500 technical support staff for Dell's North American customers.

Dell reported positive second quarter financial earnings on Wednesday but warned that it's own price cuts were hurting its bottom line.

Dell is working hard to bolster its sales outside of the U.S., where it currently ranks No. 2 behind Hewlett-Packard. CEO Kevin Rollins has said he expects about 55 percent of Dell's growth in the next four years to come from outside the Americas.

Posted by Michael Singer
August 4, 2005 2:41 PM PDT

Dell says it with flowers

The romantics in Round Rock are growing their flower delivery support business.

Dell says it is supplying about 25,000 Teleflora florists around the world with either a PowerEdge server or OptiPlex desktop computer coupled with a Dell laser printer to help the companies with point-of-sale (POS) and wire services.

A large percentage of the computers will include florists' software images and be pre-loaded with applications from Teleflora so they can get up and running as soon as the Dell box arrives.

This is not the first time Dell has supplied technology for the rose and carnation set.

Back in 1998, Dell inked a deal with 20,000 FTD-certified florists to supply hardware, installation, training and service.

Posted by Michael Singer
July 15, 2005 4:23 PM PDT

HP pays well for siphoning Dell CIO

Hewlett-Packard is paying top dollar to acquire Randy Mott, the former Dell chief information officer, who just escaped the oppressive summer heat of Round Rock for the cool breeze in Palo Alto.

Randy Mott
Randy Mott

According to papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mott gets a base salary of $690,000 per year with an option to purchase 500,000 shares of HP common stock and another $690,000 bonus for the rest of this year and next.

To replace his benefits at Dell, HP is also ponying up a signing bonus of $2.2 million, 285,000 shares of restricted stock, and $7 million for his performance between 2005 and 2008, of which $5 million is guaranteed. Mott gets the rest if HP meets its sales goals. Mott also gets $1 million from HP to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area, which should buy him a nice cozy two-bedroom house in a fairly decent neighborhood.

In the event that Mott is a victim of downsizing (a very real threat at HP these days even for management), HP will pay just over $1 million in severance pay as well as being able to vest half of his shares.

Total price tag for just punching the clock: $8.58 million, putting him in the same level as some professional athletes.

And of course that doesn't even include all the paperwork Mott filed with the SEC in June to option about 170,000 shares of the Dell stock he owns.

Posted by Michael Singer
June 21, 2005 10:22 AM PDT

Dell whacks prices on extreme machines

Dell Computer is dropping the price of its computers for enthusiasts by up to $750 for the next few days, one of the many temporary specials offered by the Round Rock, Texas-based company.

Until Wednesday, consumers who buy a particular configuration of the Inspiron 9300, designed for home entertainment, will get $750 off, according to Dell's site. The notebook, which usually sells for $2114, comes with a Pentium M 730 processor (1.6GHz), 512MB of memory, and 80GB drive and a DVD burner.

The Inspiron XPS Gen 2 for gamers has likewise dropped from $2749 to $2349. The system comes with a 2GHz Pentium M processor and a 17-inch screen. Even at a discount, the latest technology comes at a price. For $2349, budget buyer could four discount Inspiron notebooks and have about $150 left over.

All these deals only last until Wednesday, but history says that the company will likely follow up with similar deals as soon as these expire.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS Gen 5 desktop has dropped from $2099 to $1599. The system comes with DDR 2 memory, a big hard drive and a whole heck of a lot of other stuff.

Of all the PC companies, Dell is the one that worships numbers most. The company often tries to test demand elasticity and how pricing effects consumer behavior by offering temporary discounts. The results of these deals are then tabulated and examined in detail so the company can fine tune its discounts.

These deals also help the company make its revenue goals for the month.

Posted by Michael Kanellos
June 2, 2005 8:55 AM PDT

Red faces at Dell over Lenovo gaffe

There are some red faces over at Dell China this week.

According to China Daily, a Dell account manager identified only as Chris referred to Lenovo's recent acquisition as "directly supporting/funding the Chinese Government."

The comment was part of an e-mail to a customer posted on the Internet on May 27. The account manager was making note of the recent changes in ownership of IBM's legendary PC business.

"From an IBM perspective, please do not think I'm throwing stones," Chris said in the e-mail.

Lenovo completed its $1.75 billion purchase of IBM's "Think" brand of desktop, laptop and related technologies earlier this year making it the third largest seller of PCs behind Dell and HP.

Dell executives issued several apologies after the company issued statements saying they were sorry about the gaffe and reiterated that they were taking the appropriate actions. Translation: Chris, the account executive is probably looking for another job.

This is not the first time Lenovo has suffered the slings and arrows of its competitors. HP published an advertisement in a Taiwan newspaper back in February that read, "Don't even mention Lenovo." HP later apologized.

While there may be some consumer backlash, the incident is apparently ruffling the feathers of the Chinese government. China Daily said Wang Zhile, a senior multinational corporation development expert with a Ministry of Commerce research institute, warned that if Dell wanted to play the nationalism card, that the incident could negatively impact China/U.S. economic relations.

Posted by Michael Singer
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