Dell trims AMD consumer PC offerings on Web site
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Dell Inc  said on Friday  it had cut from its Web site most consumer computers with chips  from Advanced Micro Devices Inc  and would sell  AMD-based PCs mainly in stores and by phone.
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Novell's SuSE software joins Red Hat as server option. Also: Is AMD in Dell's future?
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(InfoWorld) - Dell has stopped taking orders for one model of its high-end desktop PCs, citing issues related to overclocking quad-core processors from Intel. Dell's XPS 720 H2C is a $5,939 computer designed to boost video-game performance by combining two Nvidia graphics cards with Intel's Core 2 Extreme chip, "overclocked" by Dell to run at a higher frequency than Intel intends. The computer uses a liquid radiator to dissipate the extreme heat generated by the setup, a more expensive design than standard air-cooled PCs. On Wednesday, Dell told customers it would no longer accept orders for the "Bin +3" version of the computer, which runs Intel's QX6800 Extreme Edition processor at 3.73GHz instead of the 2.93GHz it was designed for. "We apologize for having to do this, [but the] truth is that we do not have a line of sight to enough supply of QX6800 processors that can tolerate the Bin+3 overclocking," Dell's digital media manager, Lionel Menchaca, said on a company blog. "At this point, our engineering team is doing everything they can to get more Bin+3s out of our original supply, but this is expected to be a slow process," he said. Dell asked its customers to cancel their orders and choose an XPS 720 PC with a slightly slower QX6800 chip or with a slightly less powerful QX6700 chip running at the same speed. Intel stressed that there was no shortage of the chips themselves. "They're taking these units that run at 2.93GHz and overclocking them, although we guarantee them at 2.93 only," said Intel spokesman George Alfs. "We're certainly proud of the headroom of the Core architecture, and we're aware of them doing this, but once they start overclocking, it's their responsibility to support and warrantee the chips." Dell thought initially they would have enough 2.93GHz chips that would tolerate overclocking. "It just comes down to physics -- a design can only tolerate so much voltage," Menchaca said on the blog. "When we started taking orders for the 720 H2C, we had a fixed supply of the QX6800 chips that seemed ample at the time, but once we found out how rare the Bin+3 variety was, we started combing our supply chain for even more. "Last week, our backlog forecast started to pass our best estimates for finding Bin+3 chips. It just did not make sense to take any additional orders when we couldn't tell when we would be able to fulfill them." This is the second time in recent months that Dell has delayed shipments of PCs in its gaming and enthusiast family. In August 2006, the company stopped shipping the similar XPS 700 model while it fixed a design mistake in the cooling assembly.
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Dell Inc. DELL.O, the No. 1 personal  computer maker and the best customer of leading computer chip  maker Intel INTC.O, is mulling using rival chips from AMD  AMD.N, its chief executive said on Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - If you're looking for a new Linux-equipped Dell laptop or desktop from the PC vendor, you may be waiting a while. Despite obvious support for the idea last week from thousands of visitors on its new customer suggestion Web site, IdeaStorm, the company said it's not yet building machines with Linux pre-loaded for the consumer and business markets. Last Friday night, Dell posted a note on the IdeaStorm Web site saying it was listening to thousands of users who had posted messages asking for Linux on its machines by moving forward to certify three of its corporate hardware lines -- OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks, and Dell Precision workstations -- for use with Novell SUSE Linux. The company said Tuesday that the note was just about certifying the hardware for being ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux, not an announcement that the computers would be loaded and sold with the operating system in the near future. "Our point of view is that we are listening to our Linux customers," said Jeremy Bolen, a Dell spokesman. He noted that the company already offers factory-installed Linux on some specific Dell Precision workstations for high-end corporate users but is not currently installing the OS on its other laptop or desktop machines. "However, I won't rule out the option of expanding the pre-installation program at a future date," Bolen said. Dell is continuing to talk with the makers of other Linux distributions about certifying the hardware for those Linux distributions, he said. "When you talk about an operating system, if Dell is going to install it and test it, it takes a lot of work" before getting it ready for the marketplace, including having training and support in place. Dell spokeswoman Caroline Dietz said that the company's first post last Friday about certifying machines for Novell SUSE Linux on the IdeaStorm site is only the beginning of such posts by the vendor. "This is an ongoing process," Dietz said. "We're constantly monitoring this and constantly updating this. This first post doesn't mean that this is all we're doing." The IdeaStorm Web site, where customers and other IT enthusiasts can offer recommendations about future Dell products and configurations that they'd want to buy, was started on Feb. 16 by CEO Michael Dell. He is looking for ways to re-energize the company's sales and financial performance after several disappointing quarters.
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BOSTON - Security appliance maker ServGate Technologies Inc. next week will announce a new line of products through Dell Inc.'s Web site, providing hardware with integrated antivirus, spam filtering and other security features for small businesses.
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InfoWorld - Dell president and CEO Kevin Rollins indicated that the company is actively considering including AMD processors in its server roster in the foreseeable future.
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Dell Inc.  on Thursday  said it will cut back on mail-in rebates and simplify its  pricing on computers after customers complained the process for  getting the sale price was too complex.
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MacCentral - Dell Inc. took the wraps off its holiday lineup on Thursday, showing new printers, plasma televisions and music players that will soon be available through its Web site.
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Chief Executive Kevin Rollins from Dell said that the company was considering using AMD&#39;s chips for some future server products, maybe in the first half of 2005.
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(InfoWorld) - The new team of leaders at Dell is weighing a request to give customers the option to purchase PCs with the Linux OS, instead of the default Windows, after thousands of users voted for that idea on a company blog. The idea appeared Friday on a company-hosted blog called Dell Idea Storm. CEO Michael Dell unveiled the blog Feb. 16 as part of hisÂ effort to reinvigorate the struggling company. Dell said he hoped to use the blog to collect users' feedback and improve customer service. Since then, company executives and department heads have been monitoring the site, paying closest attention to the ideas winning the most votes, Dell spokeswoman Caroline Dietz said on Wednesday. The most popular threads on Wednesday included demands for Linux-based laptops, consumer PCs that are not pre-loaded with unsolicited applications and requests for Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice applications instead of Microsoft's Office suite. Popular requests also included a preference for Mozilla's Firefox Web browser instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and pleas for Dell to stop routing service calls to operators in overseas countries such as India. Dell leaders have heard those ideas "loud and clear," and plan to post a statement on the blog this week explaining how they will react, Dietz said. But she warned that the company would judge ideas on more than just their popularity. "Just because an idea is number one or number two doesn't necessarily mean Dell will do it, but it does mean it will receive the highest level of attention," she said. Dell has already changed the blog rules to make the voting more accurate, after the site was flooded over the weekend by certain users clicking multiple times on their favorite links, Dietz said. Beginning Wednesday, Dell required users to register, ensuring that each person can vote just once for each posting. Another misleading aspect of popular threads is that each vote awards postings 10 "points," meaning that the Linux thread has about six thousand supporters, not the posted number of 67,703. The second-most popular thread -- the request for OpenOffice -- has 40,572 points, and a plea to avoid unwanted software applications has 27,476 points. Most other ideas on the 95-page blog have won only a handful of votes. Despite the blog's problems, Dell will someday decide to sell Linux-based PCs in their consumer market, experts say. "Look, they already have a strong partnership with Red Hat and Oracle to move Linux into the enterprise server space. I think what they're waiting for is some more compelling applications to show up on Linux for personal use. Think about what you use your laptop for -- it's usually office, games, music and Internet access. When all of these things come together in a consumer-friendly, seamless way there will be a case for Dell to adopt Linux on portables to sell to the masses," said Joe Clabby, president of Clabby Analytics. "My 84 year-old father-in-law only needs his PC for light word processing and for AOL access. He can get plenty of Linux word processors -- but where's AOL Linux? When the right applications show up, and when they are integrated, it will all come together," Clabby said. Fixing Dell's finances could call for such a bold move. Once a Wall Street darling thanks to its innovative "direct sales" business model, Dell has struggled in recent months with falling profits, anÂ accounting investigationÂ by federal stock regulators, a lawsuit by disgruntled investors, aÂ notebook battery recallÂ and finally the resignation on Jan. 31 of Dell's hand-picked successor as CEO, Kevin Rollins. SinceÂ resuming his job as CEOÂ of the company he founded in 1984, Dell has moved quickly to restore investors' confidence by ousting several long-time executives and replacing them with leaders from outside technology companies including Motorola and Selectron. Â
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Blog: new laptops are upgraded versions of Dell's existing workhorse models
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NEW YORK -- Dell took the wraps off its holiday lineup this week, showing new printers, plasma televisions, and music players that will soon be available through its Web site.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell Inc. has stepped away from long-time supplier Intel Corp., launching one desktop that spurns the chipmaker's vPro business bundle and two others that use processors from chipmaking competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Dell will still build its new Dimension E520 and XPS 210 desktop PCs with a choice of Intel's Pentium D or Core 2 Duo processors, the company said Tuesday. But for the first time, Dell will offer a choice of AMD's Athlon and Sempron chips in the new Dimension E521 and C521 models. For its new OptiPlex 745 business desktop, Dell said it developed its own bundle of business-friendly technologies instead of using Intel's vPro platform. Intel has seen strong sales in recent years for bundles of software and hardware such as its Centrino package for wireless notebook PCs. The company launched vPro in September as an effort to extend that strategy to business desktops. The company did not rule out the chance that it might add Intel's bundle to future desktops, but said vPro had to mature first. "We'll continue to work with Intel to help them refine the technology," said Dell's chief technology officer, Kevin Kettler. He spoke during the company's annual Technology Day meeting in New York. "There's still work to be done to drive that technology as a fundamental, strong value for our end customers." He compared the current vPro bundle to early iterations of hardware-based security in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips. "Dell was a slow adopter of TPM, and that's not because we didn't know about them or forgot to ask about them. There are some cases where we've ultimately used a technology but waited for it to mature a little bit before adopting it," Kettler said. Dell competitors Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway Inc. both launched vPro-enabled desktops last week, prompting some analysts to ask why Dell was lagging despite its close relationship to Intel. The answer is that Dell was assembling its own business bundle. The company's OptiPlex 745 boosts security and eases IT management while reducing power draw. Those are the same selling points as vPro, and the Dell system even uses similar components, like Intel's new Core 2 Duo processor and a TPM security chip. The difference is that Dell chooses and integrates the remaining pieces, retaining more control over the final product. In October, Dell will add its own Client Manager module to the system, allowing IT managers to remotely boot and troubleshoot thousands of client systems from a single site. Intel does that trick with its Active Management Technology (AMT). Likewise, Dell chose its own partner for security and password protection, using Wave Systems Corp.'s Embassy Trust Suite. Dell sells the OptiPlex 745 with a Core 2 Duo E6300 processor for US$899. The XPS 210 costs $1,190 for a premium entertainment package. The Dimension E520 and E521 will go on sale Wednesday for $719 and $329, both with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Media Center OS, dual-core processors and multimedia options. The Dimension C521 will cost $359 but take up just half the space compared to the E520 and E521. In another announcement Tuesday, Dell is extending its relationship with EMC Corp., adding another five years to their partnership in selling storage products such as the Dell/EMC AX100 and CX3 UltraScale networked storage systems. Together, the two companies have sold 34,000 networked storage systems to 10,000 customers since founding their alliance in 2001.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell Inc. Tuesday pointed to its adoption of processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) for pushing it to US$677 million in profit for the third quarter, though the company has delayed reporting final numbers due to an accounting investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Dell's preliminary results mark anÂ improvement over the third quarter last year, when it reported $13.91 billion in revenue and a profit of $606 million. Dell reported revenue of $14.38 billion for the quarter, which ended Nov. 3, 2006. Dell did not offer an official comparison to the year-earlier figures, however. Dell reported earnings of $0.30 per share for the third quarter in 2006, beating the estimates of analysts who had expected Dell to earn $0.24 per share on revenue of $14.44 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The company was scheduled to report its earnings last Thursday, but delayed the move because it was trying to cooperate with investigations by the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Company leaders had cited the same reason after they missed a deadline for notifying the SEC of their second quarter earnings. They have still not filed that report, called a Form 10-Q. Company executives were not available to comment on the results. The company filed the numbers in a press release only, skipping the traditional conference call with reporters and analysts. Dell pointed to its success in selling computers powered by AMD processors for its impressive numbers. After missing its earnings target for the first quarter, Dell said in May it would finally diversify from selling computers with chips from Intel Corp. Still, Dell is having a rocky year. In June, Chief Executive Kevin Rollins promised to rebound from weak earnings by investing $100 million in customer service and by using fewer rebates in setting PC prices. But in August, Dell was forced to recall 4.1 million defective laptop batteries. Next, Dell acknowledged it was under investigation by the SEC, and, last week, lost its status as world's largest PC vendor to rival Hewlett-Packard Co.(HP). HP turned up the pressure last week when it reported net income of $1.7 billion for the fourth quarter, more than four times its mark for that period last year. Â
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Dell cut prices on some servers and PCs by as much as 22 percent because it&#39;s paying less for parts. The company will pass the savings on components such as memory and liquid crystal displays
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(InfoWorld) - Dell reached for a larger share of the small business market Tuesday, launching the "Vostro" brand of notebook and desktop PCs designed to simplify tech support, an area that has attracted complaints and lawsuits for Dell in recent months. To make Vostro PCs easier to use, Dell will ship them without any "trialware," Dell's term for the unwanted software applications that many PC manufacturers load on new computers in the factory in exchange for payments from the software vendors. In June,Â Dell agreed to let customers opt out of those programs after customers complained about that "bloatware" on a company blog. In another step intended to make Vostro PCs easier to use, Dell streamlined the setup process. A customer without any IT experience can get a Vostro PC up and running in six minutes and can connect it to the company network in only six steps, CEO Michael Dell said at a press conference in New York. And to make tech support easier for companies with fewer than 25 employees, Dell will offer support services, such as dedicating 6,500 of its customer service workers to Vostro products, offering 24-hour access to online tech support, and providing 10GB of online data storage for a year. The new computers include the Vostro 200 desktop with Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a choice between Microsoft's Windows XP or Vista operating systems. Vostro notebooks include the Vostro 1000 with dual-core AMD chips and Vostro 1400, 1500, and 1700, offering screen sizes of 14.1 inches, 15.4 inches, or 17 inches respectively. Dell is selling the models starting at $449 for the notebooks and starting at $319 for the desktop. The company also plans to add a high-performance desktop model to the family in late August. Although Dell has lost much of its market share to Hewlett-Packard in recent quarters, the company is playing to its strength by focusing on small business users, said one analyst who attended the press conference. "They still have a lot of brand equity in the small business market, and they're extending that with this offer," said Merle Sandler, senior research analyst at IDC. "With the services, they become a trusted advisor, and hopefully down the road they can turn that into a revenue stream." Michael Dell acknowledged that point in remarks to reporters, saying, "Small business is a rapidly growing market. It's also a place where there is enormous demand and need for technology." At the same time, he said, "Our customers all tell us, 'Make it simple'." Still, the company faces a challenge in repairing its reputation relative to customer service. In May, New York state's attorney generalÂ filed a lawsuit charging that Dell had used fraud and false advertisingÂ to increase profits on PC sales, applying high credit rates to computer purchases despite a promise of cheap financing. Indeed, Michael Dell stumbled over several of the questions posed by a crowd of small business owners at the press conference. He smiled at one user's story about experiencing Dell customer service problems after experimenting with competing PCs from Sony and Toshiba, and he winced at another customer's plea for Dell to keep offering Windows XP because of the "horror stories" she had heard about Vista. He also grew defensive after a customer asked whether Dell would offer a hundred-dollar laptop such as the XO computer designed for developing countries by a team at MIT led by Nicholas Negroponte. Dell pointed out that MIT had recently raised its price to $170 and that a better way to get cheap PCs in the hands of schoolchildren would be to re-use the 125 million PCs discarded each year by users in western nations. "We've sold more PCs in the U.S. than anyone else ... but that doesn't mean we're going to walk away from our responsibility. Our team has made big investments not only on the product side but in service and support," Dell said.