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Well, OK. Let's deal with the revenue growth. Dell has managed to healthily increase both its nominal sales and market share in a downturn in a very competitive market . If somebody described just those elements to me (without mentioning the industry), I would immediately say that the company has a lower cost structure and is lowering prices in the face of the downturn.
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I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891 -
After you've been to MBA school, you'll do better.Originally posted by DanS
Perhaps I haven't framed these questions well at all.
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The marketing and selling expenses of Dell are certainly much more flexible than those of the competition (salesmen, wholesellers, retailers); as you know, in the selling by mail, you know precisely the yield of any offer through ad or mail; this makes possible, during a downturn, to reduce very selectively (and quickly) your expenses in cancelling the less profitable offers, whereas the competition has to decide how to downsize the sales organization which takes time and hurts the sales. During the same difficult period, the competitors had to liquidate the excess inventory of end products and obsolete parts.Statistical anomaly.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.Comment
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At year end, the general rule is that all asset or liability items the nominal of which is in foreign currency must be valued at the rate of the market. This risk exists for all companies exporting or importing in foreign currencies, even if the said currencies float, and should be hedge unless the company intends to speculate. As a balance sheet is established in one currency, and one only, and is supposed to be a picture of the company at one specific instant (year end), we can say that the scale is even for all public companies.Originally posted by Japher
Question on comparing companies debt: are those debts measured on an even scale? What I mean is these companies from different nations have different governments in which to deal with. Some of them can't sink their debt through depreciation of assets such as land and equipment, since in some of these places the company doesn't own the land or the buildings... Also, when looking at Japan they do a lot of buisness with places like China (or at least have more companies that do) who doesn't float their currency, which could result in losses unless they hedge the yen against it, possibly resulting in debt. So, what I mean are all these international factors calculated into these debt ratios so that these comparisons can be made on even ground?
Incidently, as the trade between China and Japan is mostly made in yens, and possibly partly in US$, it would require only a hedge of the $ portion, which in any case would result in a P&L entry and not in a debt.Statistical anomaly.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.Comment
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Here's an article about Dell trying to make it into new markets, especially consumer electronics. Some of the market share numbers were a revelation to me (32% of the US PC market), although perhaps it shouldn't have been.
Consumer electronics seems like a trickier business to me, with strong competitors and brand names like Sony (9 inventory turns/year). But it's tough to argue against a company when they have managed so far to execute their business plans so well. I agree that consumer electronics is becoming increasingly standardized, so maybe they can replicate their model in select markets.
One anecdotal thing to note is that my Dell branded LCD monitor sat in somebody's inventory for over a month. Manufactured in July '03 in Mexico. On my desk in September.Last edited by DanS; October 8, 2003, 15:21.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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consumer electronics
Things like plasma tv's and the like seem to be a logical extension of PCs. I think more and more people will be willing to buy such things on-line or over the phone. Not much different than the home shopping channel and its ilk.“It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of ManComment
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Complicated. You have to go market by market.
I think the technology for plasma is Japanese/Korean/European conglomerate-owned, but let me check on that. I'm guessing these conglomerates don't OEM their parts and that's why Dell doesn't have its own plasma brand.
Compare to DLP display devices, such as video projectors (office and some minor home use) and high definition TVs (home use), where Texas Instruments freely OEMs its parts. Dell has its own brand of video projectors, but not yet TVs. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dell brand its own DLP TV. There could be sales there.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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It would be interesting if they could make a play in stereos. Particularly in entire systems. There is some similarity between a multicomponent stereo and a PC. Maybe people could even start combining them in a box (to order) the way PCs are an amalgam of moniter and processer and RAM and video card.Comment
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I know a little bit about their corp strategy stuff from the grapevine, but I should stay silent.Comment
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Gateway
Gateway are selling plasma tvs.“It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of ManComment
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Hmmm... Maybe it's less exclusive technology than I thought. Thanks for mentioning that.
GP: Re stereo receivers, yes that's a product that is modular. Have you ever opened one up to take a look inside?
Re a PC as a receiver, there are already people out there doing that. I could build you a very high quality one for about $600 with parts off the shelf in an evening's time. The only thing that would need to be custom for the likes of Dell are the amplifiers (basically all of the non-digital parts). As it stands now, a do-it-yourselfer has to have a separate amp for each channel of audio. Quite doable, but still a mess.Last edited by DanS; October 8, 2003, 20:42.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Well, I work for Dell, and I've got some information about all this you'd probably be interested in. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to check and see just how much of it I can talk about ^_^ Maybe I'll have something for y'all this weekend.
Wraith
Everybody talks about reality, but nobody does anything about itComment
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I'm telling the SEC!!!!Comment
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Some good news. The federal deficit came in at $374 billion in FY '03, when we were all expecting a deficit of over $400 billion. Not bad for a fiscal year in which 325,000 troops were put in theater and 150,000 fought a war.
Spending came in at 20.3% of GDP, which is about the midpoint of the very stable spending range since WWII (not including the first Reagan administration, which was an anomaly to the high side). Taxation was pretty low.
Here is a good article laying out all of the top-level details.
All in all, if this holds up, and they keep spending increases to 4 or 5%, then I would say that this has been a very successful fiscal policy response to economic conditions by the Bush administration. It was a little scary going through it, though.
I'm guessing that there will still be some negative politics associated with it for the next half year or so. The mood in the article seems to indicate this.Last edited by DanS; October 11, 2003, 00:54.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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It stimulated the economy a bit. Don't forget that Snow predicted that the tax cuts would create so much economic growth that revenues would increase. I think he missed the mark more than anyone.Originally posted by DanS
Some good news. The federal deficit came in at $374 billion in FY '03, when we were all expecting a deficit of over $400 billion. Not bad for a fiscal year in which 325,000 troops were put in theater and 150,000 fought a war.I drank beer. I like beer. I still like beer. ... Do you like beer Senator?
- Justice Brett KavanaughComment
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