Market Report: Custom System Under Pressure
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\ • \ While AOpen viewed its slick-looking miniPC as a consumer product, system builders had other ideas, snapping up inventory for a variety of commercial niches. \ \ • \ Intel prepares to fire back at AMD with its dual-core server platform in what is shaping up to be a bloody battle for market share. \ \ • \ AMD's Henri Richard talks with CRN Editor Heather Clancy about the company's priorities and channel plans. \ \ • \ SAS drives are ready to go, but now system builders have to prime the market. \ \ • \ Distributors say system builders need to become solution builders, and they want to help. \ \ • \ Custom systems are under pressure, but easing component shortages could help, CRN polling indicates. |
Despite showing some stability in January, custom systems remained under pressure from branded vendors at the start of the first quarter.
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In recent months, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have seen significant increases in the percentage of solution providers citing their systems as best-selling. This is most evident in the desktop market, but extends to notebooks and servers as well.
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This is part of a longer-term trend. The percentages of solution providers citing white boxes as their best-selling desktops, notebooks and servers all declined in 2005 compared with 2004.
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“It took awhile for branded vendors to get their optimization for builds down, but now they can offer systems that are cost-effective, bundled nicely and ready to ship quickly,” said Pete Busam, vice president and COO of Decisive Business Systems, Pennsauken, N.J. “Custom systems had the advantages of being cheaper and faster to market, but that is not necessarily the case anymore.”
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As we move into 2006, however, the news is not all bad for custom systems, which still hold a strong position in the desktop and server markets. One in four solution providers surveyed by CRN in January, for example, said custom systems were their best-selling desktop PC.
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Moreover, component shortages in key areas such as microprocessors, video cards and memory began easing in January, following a sharp tightening of supply conditions in the second half of last year, a trend that often correlates with a rise in the percentage of solution providers citing custom systems as their best-selling brand.
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Indeed, the slowdown in component shortages in January was accompanied by a higher percentage of solution providers that said they are working in the custom-system market, either by building their own systems or having systems built for them.
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But one key area of concern for custom-system builders is the continuing high level of shortages of motherboards and chipsets. System builders indicate that these shortages remain a factor that is negatively affecting their ability to get custom systems to market.
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While AOpen viewed its slick-looking miniPC as a consumer product, system builders had other ideas, snapping up inventory for a variety of commercial niches.
\
\
•
\
Intel prepares to fire back at AMD with its dual-core server platform in what is shaping up to be a bloody battle for market share.
\
\
•
\
AMD's Henri Richard talks with
CRN
Editor Heather Clancy about the company's priorities and channel plans.
\
\
•
\
SAS drives are ready to go, but now system builders have to prime the market.
\
\
•
\
Distributors say system builders need to become solution builders, and they want to help.
\
\
•
\
Custom systems are under pressure, but easing component shortages could help,
CRN
polling indicates.
\
•
\
While AOpen viewed its slick-looking miniPC as a consumer product, system builders had other ideas, snapping up inventory for a variety of commercial niches.
\
\
•
\
Intel prepares to fire back at AMD with its dual-core server platform in what is shaping up to be a bloody battle for market share.
\
\
•
\
AMD's Henri Richard talks with
CRN
Editor Heather Clancy about the company's priorities and channel plans.
\
\
•
\
SAS drives are ready to go, but now system builders have to prime the market.
\
\
•
\
Distributors say system builders need to become solution builders, and they want to help.
\
\
•
\
Custom systems are under pressure, but easing component shortages could help,
CRN
polling indicates.