SHORT-TERM FINANCING STRATEGIES OF APPLE & DELL

Short-Term Financing Strategies of Apple & Dell Corporations

Short-Term Financing Strategies of Apple & Dell Corporations



INTRODUCTION

Over the years many businesses and corporations has been changing PC's to Mac because they found that Mac was much easier to use and user friendly and smooth in just about every way, and due to lack of services provided by the Dell customer care services, if they had a problem they would call it a nightmare because it would just take almost forever for them to get something done, unlike Apple services which is known to be excellent and fast.

 

BUSINESS SUMMARY

Apple Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries design, manufacture, and market personal computers, portable digital music players, and mobile communication devices, and sell various related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions. The company sells its products worldwide through its online and retail stores, wholesalers, resellers. In addition, it sells various third-party Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and various other accessories and peripherals. The company sells its products to consumer, from small to big business, education, enterprise, government. As of December 27, 2008, it had 251 retail stores. Apple Inc., formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Dell Inc, was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, sale, and support of computer systems and services worldwide. It offers desktop workstations and PCs; servers and networking products; notebook computers; and storage solutions, including storage area networks, network-attached storage, direct-attached storage, disk and tape backup systems, and removable disk backup, with all the hardware the company also offers third party software products, which includes business and office applications, anti-virus software, operating systems, and entertainment software; peripheral products, including software titles, printers, televisions, notebook accessories, networking and wireless products, digital cameras, power adapters, scanners, and other products; and displays, including projectors and flat screen monitors. It also provides infrastructure consulting, asset recovery, recycling, deployment, training, support services. Further, the company offers a variety of financial services, including originating, collecting, and servicing customer receivables related to the purchase of Dell products; and financing alternatives, asset management services, and other customer financial services for business and consumer customers. Its customers comprise large corporate, government, healthcare, and education accounts, as well as small and medium businesses, and individual consumers. The company sells its products and services directly to customers through sales representatives, telephone-based sales, and online at www.dell.com, as well as through various indirect sales channels. It has a strategic alliance agreement with Perot Systems Corp., which provides integrated IT solutions.

 

PROFITABILITY RATIO

It isn't about the cost of the components; it's about a manufacturing and supply chain process. Apple has optimized their supply chain for a couple hundred SKU's, Dell has optimized theirs for customization. Apple keeps their costs down by forcing most customers to purchase the "standard" components, while Dell does just ...