Replies to post #49013 on Apple Inc (AAPL)

[dilleet]

For one quick point, Dell manages the logistics in their supply chain better than any other puter company.
I've never ordered from Dell but know that Apple needed to 2 day air my Nanos from Shanghai($18.00 for 24 of them was my charge) and from what I've read Apple keeps the folks at DHL smiling while taking slight margin hits on every unit

[langostino]

I'm just wondering Altaire

what with all the nickel and diming Dell does, do you think Apple doesn't nickel and dime just the same? Are you figuring the Asustek workers on the Dell line have been nickel and dimed down to lower wages than the ones working on the Apple line? Or did you just choose to ignore the supply chain and assembly and everything else from my previous post. How does that Churchill quote go again? something about stumbling on the truth, picking oneself up, dusting oneself off and carrying on as if nothing had happened?

Since you mentioned 3rd party software, etc., which company do you think has had more $$ of 3rd party software sold to be installed on its machines?

p.s. I noticed you didn't reply to my offer of an over/under on 5% market share by "late 2006" or as I was happy to offer, by the end of 2006. Is that because you changed your mind? Realized that you'd just pulled a number out of thin air without checking to see what sort of unit sales were required to support it? If you're gonna plaster the board with broad sweeping claims, you don't think it's unfair to discuss whether they have a rational basis do you? So let me know, are you backing down from your number?

[WinLoseOrDraw]

What great innovations does Dell and WalMart do other than nickel and dime over labor costs.

That's like asking what innovations Henry Ford did - other than revolutionizing auto manufacturing.

Walmart was the first - and for a long time the only - retailer to see the potential in applying IT to super-fine-grain inventory and distribution control. Dell completely changed the way PCs are built, sold and delivered. This may not be glamour-stuff to techno-weenies, but economy-wise it's real rubber-to-pavement stuff and supremely vital.