Honestly, the only thing I ever liked about Dell, was…Well, the fact that they stay broken most of the time, and give tech junkies a quick way of earning some money, fixing computers for people who can’t do it themselves, and get no help from good ‘ole Dell.

Honestly, I’ll stick to ordering my own parts, and just building them from scratch. Cheaper, and the tech support is better than Dell’s.

The mom-and-pop shops are almost totally extinct now. The Value Added Reseller is gone. The big name quality manufacturers are already dead, dying, or selling out (ie Compaq and IBM), and now the wholesale, cut-rate manufacturers are beginning to fade (among the many names, does anyone remember Austin Computers?).

I wont offer advise to Michael Dell, but I will remind all readers here that the glory days of the Computer Industry begin to draw to a close back in 1994 when the outsourcing movements began – when the industry began to commodotize the hardware, the software, and the people that made it all work.

The reality is that the fixed and variable costs associated with manufacturing a PC have risen so high, and profit margins fallen so low, that it is now almost impossible to promote a business producting PCs, at least here in America.

How ironic – that the wizards in Armonk, NY that started it all (the PC craze) are now gone, the building empty, the technology licensed/sold to foreigners, the support outsourced, software development relocated, and the industry as a whole now prostrate.

Who would have guessed that in 30 year we Americans would not longer be able to maintain a business model that would permit us to retain such an incredible and important technology here within our own borders?

Talking about the computers, Dell is the heaviest and dumbest among all brands. I bought 8 Dells in the past 10 years. No more in the future.

My advise for investment is: never buy a company that does not have competitive advantage, no matter how cheap it seems.

The core competitive advantage that Dell had for over a decade was a cost advantage driven by operational efficiency and effective supply chain (and hence working capital) management. This has been well chronicled.

What seems less closely followed in the business press is the fact that this advantage is GONE, as most obviously evidenced by Dell’s move to sell off their remaining factories.

The same ODMs that produce HP and Apple products are now building Dell products. The basis of competition has shifted: from cost and availability of the latest widgetry, to design and ease of use. And on that new basis of competition, Dell is an also-ran.

Moreover, the very suppliers Dell used to love to abuse now have Dell over a barrel. The bad-faith negotiating tactics they used for years with their suppliers are coming home to roost as ODMs give favor to HP and other competitors.

Michael Dell is delusional and out of touch with these realities. I hear about them from employees in all levels of the Dell organization, but the top brass there definitely do not have a clue.