Dell used to represent quality. IMO, Dell lost when they started playing the "race to the bottom" game and making unreliable computers to keep prices low. Diffe

Dell used to represent quality. IMO, Dell lost when they started playing the "race to the bottom" game and making unreliable computers to keep prices low. Differentiating your product solely on price is a losing proposition because there will always be someone cheaper. When the market shifted to Apple laptops, consumers had lost all confidence that Dell could make a suitable alternative. Consumers had no confidence that Dell could build an iPod or iPhone alternative. As a result, in the consumer market, Dell and HP were left competing for low margin scraps while Apple raked in all the profits from their high margin products.