Digital Home Thoughts: Dell Explains XPS M1330 Production Delay

"As Lionel mentioned in an earlier post, we have found the production ramp more difficult than we expected—let me take a few minutes to explain the process...One example of this is the painting process. Right now, Tuxedo Black is the only color that is consistently meeting our quality standards. That's one reason why some customers are getting their orders before others. The finish on the XPS M1330 is similar to a custom paint job on a car, but with one additional complexity—on a car, typical viewing occurs from several feet away. With a notebook, the typical viewing range is much closer... sometimes a foot or less. This requires a different level of attention to detail. Why do I bring that up? There was no problem painting hundreds at a time. But as we increased the volume, otherwise manageable factors like dust contamination caused our successful yields to decrease. Adding to the complexity, the Crimson Red and the Pearl White colors require more coats of paint and more touches to create the finished product—that means there is more opportunity for dust contamination."



Well damn. I'm still sitting here waiting for my XPS M1330, and the estimated ship date is still pegged at September 10th, a little under a month away. My Futjisu P7010D has developed a strange hinge problem, so I feel like it's ready to give up at any time...and I don't have a laptop to replace it with! I haven't been charged for the Dell laptop yet, so it's not like Dell is holding onto my money, but I haven't found any other laptop on the market today that matches the XPS M1330 in terms of performance, size, and functionality. So I continue to wait. <grumble>