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The Guitar Center/Dell/AMD partnership


Anderton

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This was a big deal at AES. If you're down on the concept, you can point out (and correctly) that the only other big retailer Dell has worked with is Wal-Mart.

 

But...........

 

Look at the big picture...GC partnering with Obedia, and having an essentially "house brand" computer. Seems to me this is an attempt to make the software experience more painless by doing the "Digidesign model" - "If you buy this computer, we say the software will work and we'll help you if there are problems."

 

When I see all the issues with interfaces and the various permutations and combinations of hardware, I can't help but think this is a good trend. From what I understand Dell has actually taken input from GC to make music-friendly machines.

 

What with that and Intel paying serious attention to the music market, we might be in for a smoother ride in the years ahead. One can hope!

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Two-branch outsourcing . . . computer to Dell, support to Obedia. Guitar Center just takes the money.

 

I'm all for turnkey systems being available for people like me who don't want to study out all the pitfalls of buying parts from several vendors, from several sources, and then making it work with software. If my intent was to buy a system with which to be productive in a recording environment, I'd probably go this route - find software that I wanted to run, a hardware interface I liked, and then get someone to specify, build, test, and guarantee a computer around it.

 

But as I understand it, this isn't what you get with a Guitar Center Dell. You get the computer, the audio software, and the audio hardware, and some time with Obedia to get you up to speed. It's probably not a bad deal (I haven't looked at prices) but it isn't a big deal either.

 

I could see them offering a few pre-configured systems, but how do they decide, for instance when a customer wants a low-dollar ProTools system, to sell a system built around Digidesign or M-Audio hardware? Have they also brought certain audio hardware companies into this deal?

 

Most important, do they have some sort of configuration management deal with Dell so that they know exactly what computer their customers will get? Dell has a reputation, at least in their lower priced (home, not enterprise) lines, for changing components and bundled software every few weeks. That's always a support headache.

 

It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

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