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LGR - Tech Tales - How Dell Dominated PCs Worldwide

This episode covers the humble beginnings, rapid rise to success, and eventual dominance of Dell Computer Corporation. Join me in LGR Tech Tales, looking at stories of technological inspiration, failure, and everything in-between!

Comments

Lindsay Michelle

Making $80k a month his freshman year of college???? Yeah, dropping out of school would be tempting at that point. :P Boring PCs or not, this story was interesting. :)

Anonymous

Dell seems like go to place to get nice budget IPS monitors which are better overall for CG artists. Or it was few years back when I researched monitor market. Still using my Dell 2209WA and pretty happy with it, tho I don't work with printing stuff. Anyway, great episode!

Sabrina

I keep reading "how hell dominated PCs worldwide". That's a thinker. Interesting video. I didn't know Dell past the crappy costumer service.

LazyGameReviews

Dell is currently the largest monitor manufacturer last time I checked! I've always been impressed with their displays

Anonymous

0:50 - I am McLovin.

Anonymous

Really enjoying this series. Keep em coming!

Anonymous

Interesting episode to watch as always! I wasn't exposed to 'em until the 2000s (I still have my trusty 2405 I grabbed a decade or so in use as a secondary display & for my Xbox - such a solid bit of kit), but it's amazing to see their (kind of) humble start.

Anonymous

Wow, I can't believe I'd never heard the story behind Dell before. I guess I always assumed Dell was an acronym instead of a name for some reason. They definitely still have a strong grip on the school PC market with the Optiplex and Latitude, and I was actually surprised when my engineering laptop showed up at work and it was an HP Z-Book. I was expecting it to be a Dell. Anyway, that was entertaining! I hope we get to see your new 386 and 486 machines soon (or were they 286 and 386? I just know they looked classy.)

Anonymous

"Where one guy can take a good idea to the point of recording-setting prosperity." This is what I hope for you and your channel Clint. :)

Kris Asick

When it came time for my father and I to get a new computer back in late 1999, we went with Gateway over Dell for the simple fact it was cheaper at the time for almost identical components. :B

Anonymous

Hey LGR and everyone else interested in this stuff. There is a TV show on Netflix and probably available other places as well called Halt and Catch Fire that may be of interest to everyone. If you haven't heard of it, it airs on AMC and is about a fictional company taking a risk developing an IBM compatible PC in 1984. It is a really interesting view of the Silicon Prairie of Texas at the time. Check it out if you are at all interested. As always LGR, I love your content and love supporting you here on Patreon. Keep it up! Thank you for more Tech Tales too. This is one of my favorite shows of yours.

Daniel Nelms

Good job man, I really enjoyed this. I ran a PC repair and consulting company from 2000-2008 and we started out building custom PCs for businesses but on the small scale. We couldn't keep up with Dell's pricing model however, they were able to undercut everybody else so we switched to being more of a VAR and eventually started selling for Dell. All that started to slow down in the late 2000s' with the boom of the mobile market. I think that hit Dell and everybody else a lot harder than expected.

Harry Thornton

Are you gonna do a Tech Tales video about the rise and fall of the Pentium line of computers?

Ezydenias

Fun fact I bought a laptop 3 years ago from Dell and I was pretty pissed about the really! Really! Bad support, only one year waranty? WTF? But this year I bought a brand new Monitor by Dell, why? 3 Years of Premium waranty!. I always wondered why ma Monitor has so much more Warenty that this shitty laptop that just barely survived a year without getting some pretty nasty problems with the skreen.

Anonymous

Newly patreon'd and i'm glad I did, as I love a good story. Thanks to you I've taken up an interest in collecting old 3DO games, particularly the long box variety. Big cardboard rules! Thanks Clint, looking forward to more.

LazyGameReviews

Not sure why I would? That was never a line of computers, it was just a type of CPU from Intel, and it never really "fell" it was just replaced by the next Intel CPU. Now, I'd certainly do a video on Intel in general, and they're still around obviously :)

LazyGameReviews

286, 386, 486, and Pentium MMX systems are all new additions recently :) Hope to show them all sometime!

LazyGameReviews

Mine was dominated by Compaqs. They all worked HORRIBLY, but then, my computer admin was a bit odd and refused to upgrade them but still wanted new versions of Windows on there. Ugh.

LazyGameReviews

Hehe, yeah, humble beginnings for like, 3 months. Then 80k a month just like that. Some people get all the luck.

LazyGameReviews

I always liked Gateway far better. They had cool stores (Gateway Country!) and those cow-patterned boxes they computers came in were neat.

LazyGameReviews

I've watched through the series twice now, really looking forward to season 2 starting next week.

LazyGameReviews

Oh yeah, the mobile boom really caught Dell by surprise it seems, and they didn't even really start to compete there until around 2013.

LazyGameReviews

Dell is currently the number one is monitor producers, last time I checked! But yeah, their support in recent years for computers really went down the tubes.

Alyxx the Rat

Very good episode again, Clint! I was never a big fan of Dell, but I remember their computers were everywhere for a while in the 2000's. I always wondered what happened to them but now it seems pretty obvious it was the mobile market... Strange as I never considered mobiles a replacement for a desktop or laptop...

Anonymous

Very interesting stuff! Knowing the history of the company now, I feel bad that the only thing I remember about Dell are those silly "Dude you're gettin' a Dell" commercials. :P Also, it was kinda wonderful seeing their website layout from the 90s. I wonder what would've happened if Dell had kept Alienware. They're a pretty big to do company in the world of PC gaming. Maybe that would've helped Dell financially, or kept them relevant. Although it seems Dell is happier being a private company.

LazyGameReviews

I never have either, but they definitely dropped the ball on the desktop/laptop market too with all their bad service and so-so pricing.

LazyGameReviews

Dell still owns Alienware! They're just one of many, MANY subsidiaries making Dell tons of cash still :)

Anonymous

I always really liked the Dell Dimension series in the late 90's. I usually prefer to build my own machines and am not to keen on OEM systems from the later 90's and up but there's something about those dimension machines. I think the cases are really nice looking and I also like how there a lot thinner then other PC towers without really giving up any expandability. The proprietary PSU connectors suck though suck if yours happens to die.

Anonymous

Gateway was my first PC back in the mid-90's after begging my parents for some kind of computer for several months, i hadnt heard of Dell at the time. i just remember it had Win95 and a 1 GB HDD!! lol. I prefer my home built computers theses days.

Anonymous

I hate that youtube won't let me watch these videos 30fps anymore. c2d and 1080p60fps is not the best combo :(

LazyGameReviews

You still can, just have to watch in 480p though. Or watch on a mobile device. If I could provide 30fps options I would, but that's up to YouTube now

LazyGameReviews

Yup, I've actually never bought a pre-built computer personally. Other than all the retro ones, but that's different :)

Anonymous

I'd gotten used to more depressing Tech Tales, but this is nice. On a related note, I wonder why Japanese computer makers were not more successful in America. (except Sony and Toshiba) That's a tech tale for another day.

Anonymous

YES.. good job Clint, more of this will be appreciated

Anonymous

I used to live in Austin, and pretty much everyone there has a story about how they were Dell's college buddy, roommate, early partner, blah blah but somehow they chose not to join him to run his new company. They're the same ones always running into Matthew McConaughey in the produce aisle.

Anonymous

MOAR Tech Tales!