Also reported in this month's Christian Computing magazine:
Gateway Computers are no more. For years they have been ailing. Started in 1985, they were famous for shipping their computers in boxes that looked like jersey cows. They marketed similar to Dell, avoiding sales in stores and going the direct market route. However, after the turn of the century, Dell sought to move into the business marketplace while Gateway continued to market to individual consumers. It has been a downward spiral ever since. In 1997, just 10 years ago, Gateway turned down a $7 billion takeover bid from Compaq.
Considering the final price just ten years later, you can see it has been a tough decade. In my opinion, the downfall of Gateway was due to the fact that many of their machines were proprietary when it came to add-on paraphernalia. For more information, visit: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070827/D8R9KRQ00.html
I was a huge Gateway fan for many years (back when it was Gateway 2000) and bought several computers from them for myself, friends, and church. I remember vividly when Dell began to overtake them (it was right around the same time that they dropped the 2000 from their name, but I doubt there's a connection). I don't think it was the proprietary issue so much as the fact that their customer service went downhill. That plus increasing prices (Dell began selling better computers cheaper with better service) led to their demise. You see what happens to companies that don't take care of the customer service component of their business. A cautionary tale for Dell, perhaps? I'm an avid Dell fan now, but any company that doesn't take care of the consumer...
