Dell to Slash Promotions, Rebates

Dell’s big announcement on consumer pricing: reducing promotions by 70-80%. This is a good move for Dell, which had developed a sophisticated, but confusing methodology for offering promotions and rebates that changes several times a day. Buying a computer became like buying an airline ticket, which wasn’t helping Dell’s reputation in the consumer segment.

Personally, given the energy that Dell put into pre-announcing the announcement, I was hoping for something more innovative– perhaps a new leasing program that would encompass hardware, software, internet access, and music, or innovative design (perhaps from the Alienware acquisition) that would put Mac-like design in the living room at low prices. (I think there’s a market for small, affordable computing modules that you can place in various “skins” to complement home decor. The margins on the plastic shell would probably be better than the margins of any of the high tech components inside.)