Tag Archives: Dell

Roy Taylor and John Byrne – memories are made of this…

Posted on May 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

IT WAS in Monaco – I flew in, I think for a channel gig.  I certainly took a helicopter from Nice to Monaco, Sukh Rayat and me were in the helicopter.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been to Monaco, but certainly was the last.

I found myself in a channel conference with old muckers Roy Taylor and Scot John Byrne.

They had fallen out – I’m not quite sure why – because they were one partnership when I’d first met them as a channel journalist.

Now, of course, they are very important people. I think John Byrne works now  for Dell-EMC and Roy works for Nvidia – sorry, AMD.

They were hammer and tongs in Monaco. I, being the perfect diplomat, brought them together in the cheapest bar in the place – a Guinness bar – where I persuaded them to love each other again.

I hadn’t expected Byrne and Taylor to jump on a table and kiss each other – in obviously  a fraternal rather than a gay way.

The rest is history. Or maybe mystery. ♦

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Mikey Dell gets out of factories

Posted on September 5, 2008 | 2 comments

IT’S A SEA CHANGE, Dell Inc getting out of building PCs. The report on www.itexaminer.com, following one on the Wall Street Journal,  speculates that Dell will flog off its factories to third party contractors.

It makes sense, but only if you understand how PC assembly works. For Dell. We visited Dell’s places in Ireland quite a few years ago, and they have it to a tee. It’s a just in time build model, so the resistors and everything else are in place just as they’re needed, and according to orders received.

No one who buys a Dell cares where it is built, whether it’s in Chennai or Limerick. Buyers want a bog standard desktop, server or notebook, and it’s got to arrive on time, at a given price, and the rest.

The bigger question is when Dell sells off its assembly units to Whoever Inc, what will happen on the support front? In Bangalore there’s a massive Dell call centre. Will Dell sell that off too? Does anyone need PC support these days? Or is everything so simple and straightforward that it’s like plugging in a microwave? [No, Ed.]

Next time you buy a Dell, if Dell goes through with its plans, you probably won’t have a clue where it’s been built or what’s in it. But never mind, you never did have much of a clue anyway when you bought a Dell, where it came from, did you? And you really didn’t care. Chip manufacturers, take note.  ♥

2 Comments

Posted in Home

Tagged , , , ,

Dell confirms it’s a friend of the channel

Posted on April 25, 2008 | Leave a comment

WE REPORTED in mid-March that Dell was attempting to emulate HP’s success in implementing a channel strategy in India.

Now it has rolled out those plans, according to DQ Channels, an Indian web site. Dell’s cunning plan is called Partner Direct and will aim to recruit resellers to sell its products in what it quaintly describes as tier one and tier two cities in the sub-continent.

There’s more, here. ♦

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , ,

Dell goes for distribution model

Posted on March 28, 2008 | 1 comment

WHEN I WAS in India earlier this month, I wrote a story on this boggette about Dell attempting to use a distribution model to shift its goods in the sub-continent.

Now DQ Channels reports that Dell will adopt the “stock and sale model” – but as we pointed out at the time, it will have an uphill struggle.

The wire notes that the Indian channel is abuzz with speculation that it’s signing up local partners. Earlier this week, other news sources said that Dell would continue with its direct model in India.

However, realistically, it has to adopt a proper channel strategy in India where Internet penetration is still low and where salaries are restricted to a few. ♣

1 Comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , ,

SPEC developing graphic power-performance benchmark

Posted on March 19, 2008 | 1 comment

INDUSTRY BODY SPEC said that it is in the course of preparing an industry standard benchmark for power and performance related to professional workstations.

The body said that the SPEC/GWPG benchmark will be available this summer, and will use workloads from the SPECviewperf benchmark for 3D graphics, as well as CPU workloads for a number of applications including financial modelling, scientific computing,  and open source.

Participants in the push to the benchmark include AMD, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Nvidia, Sun and Intel.

1 Comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Lucent wants $1.99 billion out of Microsoft

Posted on March 18, 2008 | Leave a comment

PATENTS breached by Microsoft are worth a cool $2 billion in damages, a witness claimed yesterday in fresh Alcatel-Lucent litigation.

According to Bloomberg, the Vole needs to divvy up $1.99 billion for breaching patents used by the Windows Media Player, Vista and the Xbox 360.

Dell, meanwhile, should reach into its purse and pay Alcatel-Lucent a mere $465.6 million.
An expert witness reckoned that the amounts are justified because the patents allegedly breached are based on millions of systems shipped.

The case continueth. ♣

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , ,

Dell fights up hill battle against HP in India

Posted on March 15, 2008 | Leave a comment

MIGHTY HARDWARE firm Dell has opened its factory in Chennai and is trying to emulate HP’s success in India by selling kit through distribution here.

That’s a mighty tough nut to crack. According to distributors and computer resellers, HP’s distribution network is near unassailable, and while there’s room for other players Dell stands little chance of wooing the Indian channel.

However, where Dell faces a Sisyphean task in the sub-continent, plucky little player Acer is doing pretty well. Lenovo, on the other hand, seems to have lost the plot.

The problem for Dell is that the channel isn’t prepared to be that sympathetic, after having to compete with a direct supplier for many years.  HP, on the other hand, faced a battle with Samsung over two years ago, and consolidated its victory in India. ♣

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , , , ,

AMD poaches Dell man to supply information

Posted on March 11, 2008 | Leave a comment

CHIP FIRM AMD said it has hired the VP of IT away from Dell to act as its chief information officer.

Ahmed Mahmoud had soldiered in the information pit at Dell for 13 no doubt long years.

The Dark Mayor, AMD’s president and COO, said they needed a man of Mahmoud’s experience to scale their infrastructure. AMD uses its own technology to run its IT infrastructure, he said.

That wasn’t always the case. When Dresden first opened there were Intel and Sun machines everywhere. Wonder if the lads are still on allocation for their Barcelonas? ♣

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , , ,

Dell shuts R&D shop in Old Bangalore

Posted on March 11, 2008 | Leave a comment

INDIAN BIZ newspaper Mint reports that Dell has shut down its R&D centre in Bangalore and moved whatever was being done there to Taiwan and to Texas.Local manager of Dell India seems to be contradicting this in the same report. He claims Dell will hire an additional engineers and product development people by the end of this year.

That fact is part of a report suggesting that US corporations will be cautious about spending money on IT given the state of the economy.

It quotes Indian firm Tata as saying that its consultancy services have already started feeling the pain and two its top 15 US clients have drawn back on orders.

But if Dell is withdrawing, IBM is throwing more energy into India. It’s already committed to spending $6 billion over the next three years. ♣

* This below is part of Dell’s sprawling complex in Bangalore. The script is Dell’s logo in Kannada, the local lingo.
dellhq.jpg

Leave a comment

Posted in Home

Tagged , , ,