IBM Selling PC Unit to China's Lenovo

[rxzcars]

what do you think?

 

[CozKramer]

No Vote here, but I will say astalavista quality... At least on the laptop division..

 

[regit]

oh no, the nightmare is starting to happen again........noooooooo ........i still want a job in the US by the time i graduate....QUIT GOING INTERNATIONAL SO MUCHHHH!!! :banghead:

 

[CozKramer]

regit: too late dude.. corps got another 4yrs to ship everything overseas w/o a fight.. don't think they won't either... guess what they don't realize tho, if all their jobs get taken away in favor of slave labor in other countries, we get a depression and nobody can afford anything. if you can't afford anything, these companies won't make anything as the middleclass is what keeps the country turning. nothing like cutting their foot off to spite their face... anything to save a few cents.. <sigh> it's a sad world we live in today..

 

[Erik]

Wow, IBM laptops are great. This is a true shame. Yet, the economy is stronger than ever according to Bush! Don't even get me started, this country is ridiculous.

 

[ksocia]

That's why I'm going to work for the Govt. More job security, better benefits, and hardly any layoffs. Plus the Pentagon isn't going to outsource much of their business to Asia, or anywhere else for that matter. Now I just have to figure out how to get into the inner rings/lower levels of the Pentagon (far away from the planes.)

 

[Erik]

Who knows, in ten years the Pentagon will be in India.

 

[jl514]

(far away from the planes.)

and even that's debatable.

 

[CozKramer]

and even that's debatable.

Agreed! I say NOT! to the Plane theory.

Who knows, in ten years the Pentagon will be in India.

I say send 'em all back.. I'm getting tired of driving to a drivethru or walking into a store and getting talked about behind by back in another language, and being confronted with an idiot as well. Example: Last night drove up to Carls Jr. I like to wait for other cars to show up as I figure the fries are fresher at least. So I wait, two cars pull up, okay, me next. Get to the speaker and tell it, "Western Bacon Six Dollar Combo, Large with a Sprite" Voice on the otherend says hang on I'm like okay. Then I remember, so say, "Make it crisscut fries instead too".. Now, sounds pretty reasonable right? Any idiot could get that right.?.? So I pull up and she says $5 something, "huh?" While she hands out this small drink, "huh?" I ask her, that was a 6 Dollar combo right? She says, No, it's a #3.. I say, NO.. I wanted the 6 buck one, then I tell her "Isn't it Large?" She has the brass to tell me, "Thats TWO Mistakes.." Like it's My F'in fault she doesn't understand ENGLISH. She makes it to be that I'm the one that screwed up.. WTF?? So I stay content with the 'regular size' stuff as I figure I'll be doing good to get the burger right. While I'm waiting, I hear her talking to others inside about me in spanish. All I get is 6 dollar and western bacon as this is America and I speak English. So, I'm pissed... Then! I look down at the drink right? Is it Clear? Nope.. It's Coke.. WTF? I give up! I take the bag she finally hands out and drive off... So.. She didn't get ANY PART of my order right and then had the brass to tell me it was MY Fault.. WTF is Wrong Here... Oh, Hey, At least I got the Crisscut fries.. :banghead:

I Want My Country Back!

 

[regit]

yeah it's strange, there was a spokeman from Suns Microsystems that came to my school last week and he kept talking about international relations and mainly china, and in the end when some people asked him questions, he said some sleek words, but to put it simply , "we're screwed"

 

[dehawk]

Gusy it an international market now , companies are going to expand because thats the only way they can survivie , its too complicated to sum it up in 1 post and yes its going to be tough but we are in a stronger position than any other country in the world.
Think about it , thehigher level jobs will always remain inthis country , ok so we cant compete with the illegal mexican burger flippers we still have all the corp jobs here. So what if IBM sells its division , the plans are to continue manafacturing in the us and supplying the market , if they dont then HP will expand and hire the ppl.
Yes its not a dream as it was a few years ago , but honestly what has america got to offer the world , oil -no , natural gas - no , so we dont have any real competitive advantage appart form techonology a good military , a strong dollar oh and yes ery smart minds. The IBM ppl know what they are doing as do the shareholders who authorised it
GET OVER IT

 

[ksocia]

Bzzzt, wrong.

... the higher level jobs will always remain in this country , ok so we cant compete with the illegal mexican burger flippers we still have all the corp jobs here.

So what if IBM sells its division , the plans are to continue manafacturing in the us and supplying the market , if they dont then HP will expand and hire the ppl.

...we dont have any real competitive advantage appart from techonology, a good military, a strong dollar, oh and yes very smart minds. The IBM ppl know what they are doing as do the shareholders who authorised it
GET OVER IT

Sorry, you have a few mistakes there.
1. The 'high level jobs' are going out the window. India may be getting mostly tech support jobs right now, but in a few years just watch as more and more engineering jobs head over there. If by 'high level' you mean CEO's, VP's, etc, then you may be partially correct depending on the company, but there are a hell of a lot more tech support and engineers at IBM than there are VP's, CEO's, or even high level managers.
2. IBM is selling it's division because it's getting it's ass kicked inside out by Dell and the rest. The shareholders are trying to save their ass by dumping the dead weight. The typical IBM shareholder knows as much about Computers and International Business as Bush knows about foriegn relations (which is not much.) They know the bottom line: profits and stock price, if either drop, there's hell to pay. And HP won't just expand and gobble up the unemployed IBM workers, HP will head over to India too because, frankly, it's a hell of a lot cheaper, and the quality isn't much different (Although that's debatable if you've ever gotten tech support with a strong accent.)
3. IBM's manufacturing dept has been taking a hit, and IBM has laid off tons of people in the past decade, so you can't really count on their manufacturing plans. Also, manufacturing a computer is much different than the people who design/engineer, or even service the computers. Many manufacturing jobs require manual skills that are easily taught, whereas the people who actually design the computer have CE/EE degrees and can most certainly be in/from India.
4. American technology sucks balls, we have no competitive advantage there. Our technology is basically whatever we can steal from Japan/Korea/etc. If you don't believe me then take a trip to Hong Kong and buy electronics, they're pennies on the dollar compared to America.
5. Our military may be the best in the world, but right now they seem to have their hands full (just ask any reservist whose found out what 'stop-loss' clauses mean).
6. Our dollar is sucking nuts right now too, it's been touching some of the lowest levels in recent history. Canadians are pouring over the border to buy from America because even their money is doing better vs. the dollar than the normal rate.
7. There are smart minds all over the world, it's the quality of the educational system that produces them. Indian engineering degrees are every bit as good (if not better) than most American engineering degrees, and are less expensive to boot. Take a look at any global educational ranking and you'll find American schools are far from the top.
8. That's about it, just wanted to end on a nice, even, cube.

 

[dehawk]

Dude i agree with you , but in our boom years what was our competitive edge

 

[ksocia]

Dude i agree with you , but in our boom years what was our competitive edge

Our competitive edge was Information Technology and Software Engineering, not Hardware. According to an article on outsourcing at 'TechsUnite.org,'

America confronts a new competitive challenge. The very sectors that drove the American boom of the 1990s are now being threatened by offshore outsourcing. Outsourcing is not just a problem confronting manufacturing workers. Today, American's innovation workers - software programmers and other professionals - are seeing their jobs outsourced to lower wage countries around the world.

America was really good at using information to do things, creating productivity software, and making programs that shuffle information around (i.e. Windows, Linux, MS Office, etc.) And IBM was a good company when it came to making computers, but it's long been surpassed by even local U.S. based companies (Dell) whom most likely import their electronics from Taiwan and other Asian countries. Dell is so successful not because they have good computers (which they do,) but because they have a great business plan that is almost solely based on e-commerce. Gateway tanked because (along with having average computers) their business model blew chunks. No one wanted to goto a Gateway Country store to buy an overpriced computer when they could log onto Dell's website and order the same power for less money. Does this mean that Dell have a competitive advantage because they could Engineer better computers? No. It means that Dell could make computers cheaper and faster than the competition, without a reduction in quality. That is exactly what we are doing when we outsource (or sell off divisions to China like IBM.) Making the same quality product cheaper and faster. America used to have a strong Automotive sector, but when Toyota and other Asian car companies came in, with cheaper, more affordable, safer, and more economical cars, the 'good old boys' got their ass kicked because they were slow to change over from the oversized, unsafe clunkers that got ****ty gas milage. America has a competitive advantage on things when no other country is competing (i.e. Windows), but throw in some reasonable competition and we'll get our asses kicked every time by lower wages. That's the Catch-22 about Globalization: We get good cheaper through free/relaxed trade, but we lose jobs in whatever sector we trade for. Today, America's competitive advantages are in E-business, whether B2B, B2C or C2C (Dell, Amazon, Ebay) military technology, locking up drug offenders, increasing the federal deficit, and NASCAR. If we can somehow harness the power of stock car racing, we might have a chance, otherwise I suggest you sit back, find a non-outsourcable job, and watch the prices fall.

 

[ksocia]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20041209/tc_usatoday/saleofibmunitdoesntmeanthinkpadswillceasetoexist&e=3

This is an article w/ Q&A's with IBM over the sale.
And I quote:

Q: Will the quality of the PCs change?

A: Maybe, though only time will tell.

IBM, like most computer companies, has made its PCs in Asia for many years. It doesn't even own most of its PC factories anymore; it sold them to San Jose, Calif.-based Sanmina-SCI in 2002.

It does say that most of the mfg. contracts will be kept intact initially, and many IBM employees will be hired by the new company.

 

[dehawk]

A non-outsourcable job , do they exist .

 

[spazntwitch]

A non-outsourcable job , do they exist .

I would rue the day that we had to ship our computers to a foreign country to get hardware fixed. That's why I hope that I won't be out of a job by repairing computers in people's homes and offices.

 

[dehawk]

and here lies the problem , only 9 ppl care enough to answer the poll about their own future , 6 of them dont care , so basically no one cares whats happening and honestly dosent want to be bothered with the extra responsibility of looking out for their futures (heck we vote once every 4 years to take care of that)

 

[Erik]

I would rue the day that we had to ship our computers to a foreign country to get hardware fixed. That's why I hope that I won't be out of a job by repairing computers in people's homes and offices.

I do the same thing. I think it's nice to do something that is always advancing and improving instead of declining, and there's always a new customer base.

For example, my dad is in the office products business. His customers are smaller office product dealers that are being eaten up by Staples, Office Depot, etc.

It's really a shame.

 

[rxzcars]

One of the problems with IBM is that their computer designs aren't that good. I like the thinkpad laptop though, but the design is not that good.