Dell Again Offering $50 Rebates for its Axim Line

[Ed Hardy]

The on-again off-again rebates on the Axim X5 models are on again. These reduce the price of the X5 Entry and X5 Advance to $199 and $299, respectively.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/De...Dollar_Rebates

[pocketfactory]

Hmm...I don't like rebates any more than the next guy, but why didn't you bring up these criticisms in the Handspring Treo rebate story as well?

They are just as guilty as Dell, are they not?

[gfunkmagic]

good point Foo...

However it should be noted that HS only recently began offerring a $50 rebate for the Treo 300. Also most of the rebates offered on mobile/smartphhones are the result of new activations on wireless providers. For example, in addtition to the $50 new activation rebate being offered by Sprint, Best Buy recently was offerring a $200 instant rebate on T300 for new activations. Many of these rebates are offered INSTANTLY w/o having to fill out any forms. Thus most rebate mechanisms are inherently different for mobile/smartphones device than pdas.

[khpchan]

The major point of a rebate is to artificially boost up the revenue of a company, in order to make-up for a good balance sheet and get higher debt ratings. That's why you would never see a small company offering rebates.

E.g. Without rebates, the revenue for a company is $200 million. With rebates, their revenue can be $250 million, although $50 million of which are rebate but are still being accounted.

P.S. Also, this trick is popular in North America, but seldomly happens in Asia.

[pocketfactory]

Originally posted by gfunkmagic
...Thus most rebate mechanisms are inherently different for mobile/smartphones device than pdas.

True, but my point is that Dell is being unfairly singled out in this case, while both Palm and Handspring are also using rebate "scams".

If we're forming an angry mob to go after Dell with pitchforks and torches, I see no reason why Palm should be excluded when they are equally as guilty.

[pocketfactory]

Originally posted by khpchan
[B]The major point of a rebate is to artificially boost up the revenue of a company, in order to make-up for a good balance sheet and get higher debt ratings.

I seriously doubt that is the case with Dell, considering how incredibly impressive their balance sheet is.

That's why you would never see a small company offering rebates.

You mean like Palm? Hmm, better tell that to them because they have periodically used rebates for quite some time now. Until recently, they were offering an identical $50 rebate on the $250 M130 which brought the price down to....hold onto your hat....$199. And I never once heard a single soul cry foul. But Dell unleashes a similar plan for its PPC...and suddenly everyone is up in arms. Seems like a double standard exists.

[gfunkmagic]

If we're forming an angry mob to go after Dell with pitchforks and torches, I see no reason why Palm should be excluded when they are equally as guilty.

I don't think anyone is excluding them... Its just that Dell has been more in the spot light with its aggressive pricing scheme which has brought it a lot of publicity. There's been so much positive press about the Axim price points, that perhaps actual understanding of rebate mechanisms will clarified the real costs of the devices to consumers. I think perhaps your seeing way too much into "anti-PPC conspiracy" theories.

[EdH]

Originally posted by khpchan The major point of a rebate is to artificially boost up the revenue of a company, in order to make-up for a good balance sheet and get higher debt ratings. That's why you would never see a small company offering rebates.

When companies book revenue, it is less a projected refund amount on any rebates. So you debit sales and credit a reserve on the balance sheet. Plus, your argument would only hold if only public companies did rebates. Lots of non-public companies do it too.

E.g. Without rebates, the revenue for a company is $200 million. With rebates, their revenue can be $250 million, although $50 million of which are rebate but are still being accounted.

P.S. Also, this trick is popular in North America, but seldomly happens in Asia.

No, net revenue is still $200M. The trick is that 100% of the rebates won't be filed, and for every one that isn't, Dell keeps the money.

Small companies do rebates all of the time. I rarely bother to fill out those $1 or $2 rebates on school supplies or disk media you get all of the time.

[pocketfactory]

Originally posted by gfunkmagic
I think perhaps your seeing way too much into "anti-PPC conspiracy" theories.

Not anti-PPC, just a double standard.

[Ed Hardy]

Foo, I had one fact that I needed to stretch out into a whole article: Dell had reinstated its $50 rebates. I didn't want to post a one paragraph article and I thought the rebates were more significant than making it a BrightByte. I was stretching the article with everything I could think of.

This was a deliberate attempt to not write another article like the one about the Treo 300 rebates, which is a really, really lame bit of writing.

Besides which, it was a good excuse to get a bit of debate going about the advantages and disadvantages of rebates. I wasn't trying to single out Dell for criticism. Like you said, everything in the article applies to any company offering mail-in rebates. I thought I made this relatively clear in the article. I started that section off with "Many companies" and made it clear that one of the points can't apply to Dell at all.

That said, I think a discussion of rebates is legitimate when talking about these models. Dell has offered rebates on the price of the Axim line for two of the three months it has been available and has just reinstated them. Handspring just began to offer its first rebates on the Treo 300 since it was introduced six months ago. You have to admit, rebates have been an important part of its sales strategy for the Axim line, while they haven't been for Handspring.

What rebates from Palm are you talking about?