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It's funny how back in 2005, IBM sells their PC/server division to Lenovo. Lenovo is currently the largest PC maker. During this time Dell has been bought and s
by bluedino 6y ago
It's funny how back in 2005, IBM sells their PC/server division to Lenovo. Lenovo is currently the largest PC maker. During this time Dell has been bought and sold and re-bought.
- JohnL4 6y agoLenovo is chinese, right? How many other (big) chinese companies have been through Dell's cycle as you describe it?
- marmaduke 6y agoWhere is Dell making its computers? When I track shipments they seem to be coming from China.
- rbanffy 6y agoI don't think they make their own hardware. They design it and then farm out manufacture.
- symlinkk 6y agoWhat do they even design? All of the components inside their computers are off the shelf products from other companies.
- vel0city 6y agoSpeaking of their servers, their motherboards and chassis seem to be of their own design. Often times these layouts are pretty proprietary and designed exactly around the design of the chassis. They do some level of customization of firmware on the devices they go with, as there's usually Dell firmware on things like hard drives which integrates more with their own management tools. Arguably their software stack of actually managing fleets of their hardware is something they design, along with the actual remote access controller systems they put on the boards.
- humaniania 6y agoDell desktop workstations have custom cases and mobos and power supplies, at the very least. Laptops are custom cases and often SoC.
- criddell 6y agoClayton Christensen has written and talked about how Dell sold their business piece-by-piece. Each individual step seemed like a good move - it lowered costs and increased profits. Until one day the companies they outsourced to had it all and they started selling better computers for less money than Dell. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/18/clayton-christensen-how-pursuit-of-profits-kills-innovation-and-the-us-economy/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/18/clayton...
- rbanffy 6y agoIt's interesting that the difference between that and Apple is that since Apple controls the OS, nobody else can make a Mac. Unfortunately for Dell, anyone can make a PC.
- rbanffy 6y agoLenovo's margins are still razor-thin. The thing that bothers me most about IBM keeping POWER and Z is that I can't afford either, because the margins are eye-watering.
- StillBored 6y agoFine, thin margins. So grow your market share and revenue, which is exactly what they did. Since ~2005 they have ~5x'ed their revenue. Which is pretty significant if you consider one of IBM's big problems has been declining revenue. Proving the problem with the business wasn't the business itself but IBM management.
- jcheng 6y ago"Largest PC maker" has been a pyrrhic title for many years now. Lenovo's market cap is $8 billion, Dell's is $51 billion.
- ogre_codes 6y agoYep. And the value of Dell's business isn't in selling PCs, it's in other services around the PC.
- frank2 6y agoAnd IBM's is currently $117 billion.
- AlphaSite 6y agoMost of Dells market cap is the 87% of vmware it owns (67 billion)