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Archive for August, 2009

Dell raising computer prices?

Not something you see everyday….

I came across this post at Liliputing… turns out that Dell raised the price on their Inspiron 11Z notebook/netbook by $50.

Pricing in the computer industry is more of an art, than a science. You try to figure out what competitors are pricing at, how much demand there will be for a certain product and also to manage your manufacturing / supply chain so you sell what you produce and not have inventory shortages or excess.

Will be interesting to see what drove this? Did Dell get a good response and start to run out of inventory? Or did it hit the holy grail and find that customers were glad to pony up $50 more for the same product (pure profit to the company)

Posted by Admin    Date: Monday, August 31, 2009

Former Dell Execs Now Leading Austin Venture Capital Fund

Its always fun to track the exploits of former Dell executives and mangers.

Just saw the following article in the Austin American-Stateman today… Former Dell execs looking to invest in breakaway ideas. It seems that a number of former and current Dell Management committee members are participants in Daylight Partners, a venture capital fund that provides bridge funding, an investment between an angel or seed funding round and formal institutional monies, to startups.

Interesting to read that the partners do not have formal offices, but meet together in person every couple of weeks. The partners are seeking investments in companies that value the partners’ “operating experience”.

I’ll keep an eye on this and see what the VC industry perspective is on this fund. The industry is usually skeptical about these kind of partnerships.  Its acknowledged that there are too many VC funds chasing too few deals. At the same time, early stage funding is hard to come by, so a fund with open pockets is refreshing.

If will be interesting to see if the funds’ operating experience is needed by the propsective portfolio companies. Also, investment partnerships such as this by non-professionals tend to fizzle out as interest wanes or if they are not able to generate desired portfolio returns.

Posted by Admin    Date: Monday, August 31, 2009

Follow us on twitter!

the Dell Observer is now on twitter – check us out at username “dellobserver”

Posted by Admin    Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009

Today’s Dell Deal (Aug 29): Sick Desktop + LCD = $347

Wow – this is a scary, sick deal. Dell Vostro 220 Dual Core Desktop with 21.5″ Samsung LCD Monitor for $347.10 (normally $554 – use coupon code 7LXC0FZZR54P3X). Display alone is worth between $150 and $200 depending on the day.

Some other great offers:

Posted by Admin    Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009

Dell earnings down; Optimistic for 2nd Half

Dell reported earnings on Thursday (8/27) and difficult to read if the company is on track for financial success.

The company beat estimates by 2 cents a share (a former trademark of the company but hadn’t been accomplished for some time). Some key financials:

  • Revenue was down 23% year over year
  • Gross margins improved to 18.7% from 17.2% for same quarter last year
  • Consumer saw 17% increase in sales, but as we know from Acer and HP, this segment is challenged for profitability
  • No surprises that SMB and Corporate sales still lag

Michael Dell did say on the call that they “we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half.”, expecting a bounce-back in corporate purchasing in early 2010.

Dell’s stock was at $16 and chance at the pre-open, today Friday 8/28. The stock, which had traded as low as $8/share in the past 52 weeks, is still garnering mixed opinions by investment analysts.

Posted by Admin    Date: Friday, August 28, 2009

Dell introduces Lattitude 2100; Netbook for the .EDU set

Photo: Dell.com

Photo: Dell.com

Dell usually positions its corporate products to the education buyer, but this product is a bit interesting. First of all, its interesting to think that corporate buyers would purchase something as limited as a netbook. Secondly, the bright green cover and other consumer features are somewhat surprising to creep over from the Global Consumer side of the business to the often stodgy Lattitude brand. That said, the system reeks of the Lattitude brand from 2003 – is pretty square and uninspiring.

What’s next – corporate buyers purchasing netbooks as a low cost alternative to notebook PC’s for their employees?

Reviews worth checking out;

Posted by Admin    Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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