In the United States, Ireland and Malaysia, the story was the same. Time and again Dell Computer was warned its direct sales model was unsuitable for local conditions.
Now, as the multi-billion dollar build-to-order computer giant launches mainland direct-marketing operations, the finger-wagging sceptics are howling louder than ever: 'Chinese customers want to see and touch a computer before buying one.' 'When I first encountered Dell in Ireland, I would have said the Irish customer wants to sit down and eyeball the computer,' said Buddy Griffin, vice-president for operations, Dell Computer Corp, Asia-Pacific. 'But I was proven wrong. It comes down to value for money.' Dell is betting the value it offers will have mainlanders clamouring on its telephone lines to put down their cash. In August, Dell launched a 135,000-square-foot manufacturing and technical support facility manned by 200 employees in Xiamen, Fujian province.
At the same time, Dell began directly marketing a range of OptiPlex desktop and Latitude notebooks PCs in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shanghai, along with the satellite cities of Tianjin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Shenzhen.
Dell believes its investment - the amount of which it refuses to disclose - will raise its profile in what is considered the region's fastest-growing and most important PC market.
Last year, Dell used traditional market channels to sell about 30,000 computers in the mainland, representing less than 1 per cent of market share and ranking the firm 11th among mainland PC vendors.
'The new facility and strategy is certain to improve Dell's success,' Dane Anderson, regional PC analyst for International Data Corp, Asia-Pacific, said. 'Throughout the Asia-Pacific, Dell has proved sceptics wrong.' Mr Anderson said that since opening its facility in Penang, Malaysia, in January 1996, Dell had risen to seventh place among PC vendors in the region, ranking even higher in some markets.