Betting on DELL?

Lately I've been following DELL and it's business decisions and valuation as a potential value investment. Here's what I find compelling.

1. DELL is listening to it's users through mindstorm.com, which is similar to DIGG in allowing customers to drive requirements. This seems like a great way to build community and get customers behind your business.

2. DELL is installing Linux on it's systems. Although they are only selling in the US, they will roll-out world-wide soon. They also will bundle Open Office, which should completely eliminate the need for Microsoft and hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost per unit.

3. Michael Dell is now in the drivers seat and cleaning up some bad management decisions and direction legacy.

At the same time, I believe that Microsoft has really blown it with Vista. I have Vista on my Dell laptop and it adds no value to my user experience. Although it may be more secure or offer great potenital for future development, as a customer I don't understand why I paid for this upgrade. I also still experience application failures regularly and general sluggishness. After five years of development Microsoft really blew it.

I believe that DELL is poised to provide systems internationally which are affordable and robust by providing open-source and Internet ready systems. In combination with Web 2.0 and Google apps DELL should be able to grow marketshare over next couple years.