Dell sells to retailers in the US - Europe has to wait

By Alun Williams

Posted on 21 Aug 2002 at 14:30

Dell is to sell unbadged, generic PCs through dealers in the US. Dell has denied, however, any intention to repeat the strategy in the UK or Europe, at least for the moment.

From the 23rd of August, Dell will supply the 'White Box 510D' Dell-in-all-but-name boxes to American dealers. These third-parties will be specifically targeting the small business market with their customised offerings. It's a market that Dell believes is worth $3bn in the US, covering 40 per cent of small businesses.

Dell maintains that it can supply third-party 'solution providers' while still adhering to the tenets of its direct-sales model which eliminates distributor mark-ups, building to order, and not building inventory. These Value Added Resellers (VAR) will typically provide a bespoke system to a company which will not only include machines but also often, software, customised solutions and training as well. Clearly Dell feels it has been missing out on this market where typically such a VAR will buy in very low cost machines from a small supplier, import them from the Far East, or build the machines themselves.

The company stresses that the unbadged Dell boxes will only be available in the US - and only then to system providers dealing with businesses of 100 employees or less. 'At this point in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) we have plenty of growth opportunities utilising our current portfolio,' said an official company statement.

The original story, from the Associated Press, describes the spec for the White Box 510D as follows. With pricing starting from $499, units will feature an Intel Celeron, CD-ROM and floppy disk drives and Windows XP. Monitors are not part of the package, which does include a one-year warranty on parts.