Fall out comes after Intel love in
DELL HAS had a nightmare this week compounded by the quadruple conjunction of combusting notebooks, a Chinese price probe, a 50% profit drop, and an SEC investigation.
Dell's decision to announce it will use AMD chips for desktops and more adopteron of server MPU Opteron at the end of a terrible week has probably thrown its new friends at AMD Sunnyvale into despair.
First, the financials. In its second quarter it filed a a net profit of $502 million on revenues of $14.09 billion, down from $1.02 billion on revenues of $13.43 billion in the same quarter last year. CEO Kevin Rollins blamed price cuts and a sluggish market for PCs.
Secondly, it said that it had "recently discovered information that raises potential issues relating to certain periods prior to fiscal 2006". It has started an internal audit to investigate. The SEC wrote to Dell this time last year and the firm is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Flaming laptops did not form part of Dell's financial results as that falls within its current quarter. It may well have some impact on sales of laptops in the up-and-coming "back to school" period.
And so to AMD. Dell said it will introduce Dimension desktops using AMD processors next month, and will also release twin socket and multiprocessor servers using Opterons by year end. Dell is probably eager to not further antagonise long time friend Intel. See
Otellini gets spray painted in Intel love fest.
Dell's timing for the desktops with AMD chips is interesting because it could possibly have made more hay while the sun shone on the Opteron 12 or even 18 months ago. It said in a statement is is "enthusiastic" about Intel's Core 2 Duo for desktops, Woodcrest for servers and the Merom notebook chip. "Dell's partnerships with AMD and Intel will greatly enhance its ability to end the year with the broadest and best product line in its history."
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