Apple/IBM vs Dell

While Apple Computer Inc. and IBM Corp. failed to retain their market leadership in a market that they helped to create, Dell Computer Corporation, a small player in mid-80’s, has emerged as a major player in same the PC industry. Besides Dell’s “direct model” and “focus on sophisticated computer users” which have received significant attention in the management literature, Dell’s success, in part, is due to the focus of its product design strategy (Margretta 1998). The complexity and uncertainty of each one of its three major product lines, e.g., laptop, desktop, and servers, are quite homogeneous. The homogeneity of the design task is achieved through reduction of compon...