Dell still tough to beat in PC market
C|Net | at | by Mike
Does the merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer scare Dell Computer? Probably not, say analysts. Although the combined company will command a whopping 81 percent of the U.S. retail PC market, the merger won't erase the problems that drove HP and Compaq to combine - namely, that Dell can make PCs for less than either company. The merger, ideally, will make HP-Compaq more efficient by cutting duplicative costs, but Dell will likely be able to undercut that. In addition, HP will have its hands full trying to integrate two huge bureaucracies and two very different strategies for manufacturing PCs. In short, the combined company will be about as big in PCs as Dell is, but not as profitable.