Dell slips to #3 in latest market share rankings

[link1313]

I think because Acer is available at retail more widely and at a lower price than Dell is the reason they are growing so quickly.

I personally find Acer's to be cheaply built compared to recent Dell offerings. To be honest I think the reason Dell is failing is because its trying to release higher quality notebooks at a higher price while everyone and their mother thinks of Dell as a cheaply built/cheap price company. Then they go to the store and see an Acer/Dell (if there is a Dell at the store to compare it too) and think, "why pay more for a Dell"?

[surfasb]

Could the problem be too much choice?

The one thing that Dell possibly enables more than any other manufacturer is a way to royally screw up your purchase by making choices you shouldn't, because you have the ability to do so.

No offence to anyone in particular, but even people here - an enthusiast site - frequently give me the impression they don't have a clue what they actually want when it comes down to it. Take your average joe on the other hand - and it's a total minefield of mis-choices in the making.

Other manufacturers, by limiting choice, seems to be delivering more of what people think they want.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it seems to me that no-one potentially does BYOD (Bring Your Own Disaster) better than Dell. Personally I know exactly what I want once I have a use in mind so the choice works in my favour, as it does for most actually savvy buyers - but I've always thought that for the vast majority of consumers, too much choice is a bad thing. Perhaps if, as others have said, Dell rids itself of the mentality that it has to compete in every single niche, then it could evolve to be a Lenovo with slightly more panache.

As for build quality, personally I think Dell has improved tremendously in general in terms of what it can engineer for and achieve. I remember my first Poweredge in the relatively early 90's - it literally fell apart as we were putting it together, and I remember the Dell PC's from the time as well - nasty, nasty machines compared to the other hardware I was using.

I'm totally with you here. Their consumer lines should definitely be consolidated and the options seriously trimmed down. It makes it too bewildering for all but the most tech savy of us.

[Greg]

Someone I know is trying to purchase a laptop with a certain set of specifications (GPU and price mostly) and Dell won't sell him a laptop without the Intel card unless Dell upsells him to a laptop that costs $400-500 more.

I didn't believe it until I saw it myself, but Dell has seriously split up their lineup in such a way that in order to get one powerful feature (higher end GPU for instance)...you might have to buy a bunch of other features you do not really want (quad core processor, extra bundled security software). That puts people off from buying Dell...right now he is looking at possibly getting an HP instead if it meets his needs.

[Serg]

I know what you mean Greg.

Before getting my Envy, I was getting a Dell, but I HAD to get more RAM and the larger battery for my configuration, and I didnt want that.....obviously I looked away from Dell.