Through its Micron University, the company offers Web-based video training. Micron, like Gateway, also offers ISP services. Compaq and other traditional vendors are now beginning to offer such services, but in the past they were provided mostly by local dealers and resellers. Gateway's response so far has been the YourWare program, which offers lending options, ISP connectivity, and third-party software to customers. In 1999, the company will expand the YourWare program as well as begin to offer a wider variety of third-party products on their Web site.
Ongoing service is only one part of it.
Of the three, Dell seems to be taking the most conservative approach. What Dell does is bring processes and efficiencies to markets based on standard technologies. Although selling third party-products opens up new revenue streams for these vendors, executives at the traditional PC vendors say they couldn't be happier. Clay's enthusiasm largely lay in what could occur to the public perception of the three direct vendors once customers think of them as storefronts. If customers begin to think of these companies in terms of procurement, they may no longer consider them as technology companies.