Michael Dell recounts disassembling an IBM PC as a teenager in 1981 and discovering the massive markup between retail price and component cost.
Assertion Supported
Michael Dell realized the $3,000 IBM PC contained just $600 in parts
“When you took apart this IBM PC that was selling for about 3000 dollars, as far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Michael Dell generated $50,000 to $80,000 monthly from his dorm room
“I was doing about 50 to 80,000 dollars a month in business when I was in my dorm room.”
Assertion Partly supported
Dell introduced a PC twice as fast as IBM's for half price
“IBM at the time had a six megahertz, two 86 computer that they sold for 3995 dollars. So, you know, we introduced a 12 megahertz two 86 base computer and we sold it for 1995 dollars. So our computer was twice as fast and was half the price.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Michael Dell: Most early Dell sales came from businesses, not consumers
“A lot of people thought, oh, only consumers buy from Dell. That's actually not what was happening. We were selling to all sorts of companies and governments and small and medium-sized businesses, and that was most of our business, even from the beginning.”
Assertion Partly supported
Michael Dell's company reached $66 million in revenue when he was 21
“I think it was sixty-six million that, that year, and I was 21.”
Assertion Supported
The FCC ordered Dell to halt all computer production around 1986
“I remember one time we got this letter from something called the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, and apparently, ah, you know, computers fall under something called the Federal Communications Commission Class B device, which means they have to be a…”