Comments on: Putting the sparkle back into Gateway

Freshly minted CEO Wayne Inouye spells out his plans for reviving the company's flagging fortunes.

Not A Chance for Gateway

With limited market share, confused brand image, no
enterprise presence and a retail partner who would rather
allow their sales people to stand around and talk to each
other versus help customers, Gateway can't possibly gain
headway in the PC arena. With dell, HP and IBM hitting their
stride and Acer determined to be a major player, GW would
have to live with under 2% SOM. Can you live off of that
witht he razoe thin margins?

2% of some billion is small?

2% of multi-billion dollar is not small for a has been pc company.
Plus, I still think Gateway is a buyable company.
Think Moo! in a box

As Yoda said, "So certain, are you..."

Gateway has a few things going for it:

1) Their hardware is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. I ought to know: I'm both a Microsoft Certified technician and a former Gateway owner. (I build my own now.)

2) They still have brand recognition. Even Aunt Millie, who may not know her TCP from her IP, knows the name "Gateway."

3) If you think a battered and bruised OEM with a poor product line whose death has been predicted countless times by the talking heads can't make a comeback, I have one word for you: "Apple."

Hardware makers live in a feast-or-famine industry. Gateway is down, but they're not out. With some discipline, they can be a great company again.

2%

Try 5.6 % read the newest Garner Report. Besides in professional they improved the % of market share by over a precent. Dell and HPQ are getting to big for their own good, all their support is outsourced unless you pay 70 per system extra, ect,ect.. it may take a while but watch Gateway is comming back.

[Dachi]

They need a Dodge Viper.

The will never rebuild a brand image competing on the bottom level. In order to do this, they would literally have to sell PC's at a loss.

Let eMachines compete with HP and Dell on the sub $700 machines and offer a product line that competes with Alienware and Apple.

The low end PC market is saturated, build a line that appeals to gamers and enthusiasts.

If a consumer is going to get the best PC money can buy, do they think Gateway?

I would also like to see Gateway enter the printer business with a $600 printer that uses $5 commodity ink cartridges, it would eat at HP's profits.

Read this
http://marshallbrain.blogspot.com/2004/02/price-of-things-price-comparison-last.html

Ink cartridges now cost more than a microwave, and as Dell's CEO put it, ink is becoming the most expensive liquid on the planet.

It takes one major brand to enter the market selling commodity cartridges to change that.

Gateway has the _ability_ to be born again, but do they have the leadership?

Sharp thinking

Great comments. I was thinking along the lines of Gateway competing with Alienware, too.

But the inkjet printer idea is genius, baby. I've got an HP DeskJet that's dry and hasn't had fresh cartridges in a year. (Literally.) My loan didn't come through. ;) (Besides, they seem to run dry after about a month of moderate use.)

Gateway products

I bought a 4 Mpixel Gateway camera about a year ago.
It never gets the fleshtones right when shooting indoors, and loses your custom settings every time you turn off the power. I will never buy another Gateway product.

[lakingsfn2004]

Former Gateway employee here

I think the problems with Gateway all started in about 2000 when Jeff Weitzen took over the company for Ted Waitte. The quality of the product went into a downward spiral and I think that shook the customer loyalty down to it's core. After that the Gateway Country Stores had a hard time getting their trust back and that led to the demise of the stores. I know several people who were laid off from the store I used to work at and I really believe that Gateway needs to get back to making a great product, then the customer base will come back. Until then, Gateway will just be a second rate computer maker.

EMACHINES REFUSES TO HONOR WARRANTY

I purchased an emachine which went wrong. When I attempted to get them to honor the warranty, I was asked to send proof of purchase via fax. I did so. Now they say they cannot read the fax and won't honor the warranty. I asked to speak to a suprervisor - she said I should fax proof of pruchase - something I had already done. Then I asked to speak to the had of the corportation and was told Wayne Inouye was the head. I contacted the corp headquarters and asked to speak to Wayne Inouye - and was told that was not possible. End result - EMACHINES DOES NOT HONOR WARRANTY - WAYNE ENOUYE CANNOT BE REACHED AND I AM TAKING THE EMACHINE BACK TO OFFCE DEPOT BE CAUSSE WAYNE INOUYE RUN A COMPANY THAT DOESN'T HONOR IT'S WARRANTIES.

Pete Stapleton

RE: EMACHINE and WAYNE Inouye!

I feel your pain. I am going down to Irvine Corp. Office in hopes to resolve some issues in PERSON. I will let him know about your problem mr. simpleton if I actually do get to talk to this CEO in person.

[Ron Wells]

warranty coverage

I,also,had to send proof of purchase before emachine would honor warranty,but the technician agreed to send replacement drive once I got back to them.Hopefully there won't be problem with returning the old part. Having read this article beforehand, I made sure to make a very clear copy of my reciept before I sent the fax (high resolution) Maybe, it would be worth while to fax it again? Office Depot might be able to correct the date as well.

[parkerross]

Revamp Customer Service

I had been a Gateway customer since 1989, having bought three systems from them over the years. I even became a Gateway stockholder when they went public because I believed they were doing everythhing right.

That was then.... I just cancelled an order for what would have been my fourth Gateway system. Regretfully, their sales and customer service departments are in dire need of a complete overhaul and retraining in the importance of the customer to any businesses success. I had a really frustratingly bad experience over a period of several days, trying to get sales & customer service to honor one of their currently advertised sales incentives - reduced shipping $$. Their belligerence, combined with customer neglect just cost them: 1. a $1,300 sale 2. a long time customer 3. a Gateway cheerleader / advocate.

Are you listening Ted and Wayne? Do you care? Will you fix what is obviously broken? Is Gateway going to have a future? I thought I knew, but now I wonder....???