LeeJend said:
Well, that was a rediculous statement. Dell's R&D dept. has a line of current prototype AMD machines sitting on the shelf at all times.
No, actually they didn't.
That is how you beat down suppliers. Show them a working prototype and tell them if the pricing isn't acceptable they will force you into marketing it.
No, this is NOT how you "beat down" suppliers.
What you do may be
slightly different from what companies with annual revenues about $70 billion do while maintaining profitability AND the best efficiency in the relative industry.
If the prototype demo doesn't work then you turn on the factory sample line. If that doesn't work you kiss the old supplier goodbye and go into full production.
Honestly Leejend, do you think a company like Intel is JUST another supplier?
I can get production run PCBs in 2 weeks using the prototype artwork, populate the parts and have then tested in 3 weeks. Then you start sampling in the 4th week to your preferred customers. The CPU and bridge chip are the only non-standard part and I'll bet AMD would be happy to shuffle it's supply chain a little to get Dell on board.
You don't have a clue about how Dell designs its boards and how the whole process works. It isn't that fast and easy and simple with Intel based products on the server level and Dell has had a working relationship with intel for 22 odd years. Why would AMD be any different ESPECIALLY when the design marchitecture would be completely different?
There is not really any custom engineering involved. The servers have to run the same old bios, operating system, software and hardware that everyone elses machines do.
Have you opened a Dell system lately?
That leaves little leeway for optimizations. Of course you can still roll in those non-standard proprietary touches that OEMs are so proud of to force sole source buying.
As above.
Sorry Michael and Kevin didn't bother to bring you up to speed on how the corporate office works. Announcements are for leverage. Deliveries are for reality.
Michael and Kevin made it very clear internally why the company was going the way it was and there are plenty of detailed press reports which also cover the same gamut of topics.
Sadly the entire computer industry has turned to using "pre-announcements and leaks" to try and drive the market before product is ready. And it is working. The PC industry is currently in a recession because sufficient numbers of people are holding off non-critical purchases waiting to see if last years announcements produce products as good as claimed.
Dell is not nvidia or ati or another IHV with various products coming out. It is a system builder, first and foremost, although it has plenty of other products on offer. How many large system builders do you see making bogus announcements? Please provide some examples because I am clearly not educated on this.