Thanks to all of our customers who  continue to wait for your orders despite the delays. We apologize for the frustration that they have caused all of you. I know that many of you have seen the blog posts about the XPS M1330 delays, but many customers are asking for details behind the Inspiron delays.  I wanted to spend a few minutes to try to address some of the fundamental issues we're dealing with.

Regardless of what product we're talking about, generally speaking there are two things that dictate when we will ship your order: 1) the order date and 2) parts availability. There are other variables that factor into this, but in general, we expect to ship products in the order they were received when we have the components to build your system.

Speaking of components, many of you have asked which ones are delaying your orders. The reason that's not a simple question to answer is that the supply picture changes frequently. Once we are aware that  a component is in short supply and will add time to your estimated ship date, we try to indicate that on the configurator in Dell.com to give you an indication of further potential delays.  Here's an example screenshot here:

To date, color options are the main source of delay on Inspiron notebooks. Basic colors like black are easier to produce. Premium colors and finishes like we use on the Inspiron models introduce complexity into the process, and that's holding things up. Just as Alex mentioned in his post about colors on the M1330, producing smaller quantities is not the issue—it's mainly an issue of scale. We'll continue to work directly with suppliers to ultimately increase our production on color notebooks. Besides scale, we are also focused on maintaining the levels of quality we established when we designed these notebooks. In other words, we're not going to relax our quality standards to ship more products.

While premium colors are the main reason for delay of our Inspiron notebooks, displays are a secondary reason—some screen sizes are in short supply.

As long as we have lots of customers waiting for systems like we do now, we have some tough work ahead of us. I can assure you that people at all levels in many departments across the company are working around the clock to resolve all the issues preventing us from shipping your systems. Beyond that, we have added dedicated sales and support resources in the United States and around the world specifically to address the customer experience issues that these delays cause. We also understand that shipping your system is key, and we'll continue to work to do that.

Thanks again to all of you who continue to wait for your orders. We appreciate your patience and your business.

Since my last post, many of you made it clear that you want us to share more details about what's going on with the XPS M1330. I want to apologize for the frustration that these delays are causing you. I understand that no amount of explanation is a substitute for shipping the system, but hope this helps address some of your concerns.

Right now, we are focused on shipping as many systems as we can. Currently, we have worked through about 10% of our backlog and will focus on improving this going forward. Despite our best efforts, we may not be able to ship some orders before the original estimated ship date we gave you. In those cases, Dell will be contacting affected customers to let them know. Details will vary by region.

When you order a system, the estimated ship date factors in our best currently available information, including the number of orders in front of you and the availability of parts. It should not change unless something impacts one of these factors. If that happens, we will contact you.

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. Before we begin shipping products to customers, we build a sizeable number of units to test our manufacturing process and to help flush out any issues that may impact our ability to build in volume. These test builds are a fraction of what we expect to build at full production. Once we start building a larger number of units, we may see issues that pop up in only one or two of them, but which require larger volumes to reveal themselves.  Since it's hard to tell if the issue is an isolated one or if it will affect a large number of units down the road, we investigate each one thoroughly. When that happens, it slows our build 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.

All this ultimately results in fewer finished parts from the paint line than we expected.  You may have noticed on Dell.com yesterday we discontinued the Pearl White color. The reason is that we are just not able to produce the kind of volumes of high quality product that we need to support demand. It takes about 5 coats of paint to get the appearance we were looking for.
We are working to ship white units that meet our standards to all customers who ordered them, but those may be the last of the units using the current process, as we continue to pursue alternate methods of producing high-quality white units.

Unanticipated part shortages also hold up our ability to ship products. The most obvious issue is one mentioned in earlier posts-the LED backlit LCD display. First off, it's new technology, and that means there are fewer suppliers available. Bright white LEDs provide the backlight for the LCD instead of a fluorescent tube. It results in a brighter display that offers better color reproduction, is thinner and lighter, and draws less power. This relatively limited supply base combined with stronger than anticipated demand-the number of orders has simply exceeded our expectations-has  contributed to the delays. Our vendors are ramping production as quickly as possible, but these displays continue to be in short supply.

We're committed to shipping these systems as quickly as we can. Once again, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business and your continued patience.

Understandably, I'm getting lots of comments and direct e-mails related to delays of XPS M1330 notebooks, Inspiron and Latitude notebooks, and some of our Vostro products.  I want to apologize to all of you for the frustration these delays are causing. I also want to assure you that we're doing everything we can to ship your orders. 

The My Order Status page shows your original (or adjusted if the date has slipped) estimated ship date of your order. It also shows factory progress after the build has started. The build status will not change if we are still waiting for parts to complete your order. 

Some of you have reported that your order was canceled by Dell. For customers in the United States, I wanted to share some details that may apply to many of you. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an agency of the United States government that focuses on consumer protection. For more background on the FTC, take a look at this link from their website, or the Wikipedia entry here.

One of the laws that the FTC enforces is the Mail Order Rule, which requires us to obtain your permission to proceed with processing your order when it has been delayed more than once. If we do not obtain your permission to proceed, we must cancel the order to be in compliance with the law. Therefore, it is critical we receive your permission to continue processing your order or the Federal Trade Commission requires us to cancel it. If your order is canceled, you will lose your place in line.

What can you do if you want to continue your order? If you are a customer in the United States who has already received notice that your original ship date has slipped and that we require your consent to continue with your order, please send an e-mail to US_Dell_Notify@dell.com or call 1-877-868-3355. Here's the information we need:

• Your first & last name
• Your order number
• A message that you are okay with the delay and revised estimated ship date provided in our last notice to you, and want to keep your order in place

Again, this only applies to you if you've receive an "Order Delayed" message from Dell that indicates your consent is required to avoid cancellation.

I know that many of you have waited weeks for your orders, and the last thing I'd want to happen is that your order gets canceled unintentionally. Since the Mail Order Rule only applies to customers in the United States, processes outside the United States may differ from what's described here.

Please continue to check your My Order Status page, as Dell is working to meet our estimated shipment commitments.

I've been getting comments from several customers like who have submitted their orders and have not received a response. Wanted to clarify how the process works, and the easiest way to illustrate it is to break it down into two main groups: Customers who purchase something, and customers who don't. Basically, if no purchase is involved, you will receive an e-mail notification when your order is processed. If you are purchasing something, Dell will be contacting you directly to process work out payment details to process your order.

In all cases, please allow up to 10 business days (two weeks) for us to process your order and get back to you.

No purchase: you will receive e-mail order confirmations when your order is processed.

• XPS 700 customers who opt for the hardware kit at no charge
• XPS 700 customers who choose on-site installation service at no charge

 Orders with payment: you will receive order details from the Dell representative who contacts you to process you order.

• XPS 710 customers who purchase a hardware kit
• XPS 710 customers who purchase the on-site install
• XPS 700 customers who purchase the discounted quad-core QX6700 processor 

Thanks to all of you for your strong support of the XPS 700 Motherboard Exchange Program. Due to overwhelming global demand of the program, we need to order more components for hardware kits to support the demand.

What this means is that we are able to fulfill all orders up through Thursday, August 16 within the original estimated shipping times. Orders submitted after that date will take us about six weeks to fulfill. Between now and then, we will do everything we can to shorten that timeframe, but that's the best estimate I can provide at this time. My apologies to customers who will have to wait a bit longer for their hardware kits.

As a reminder, the link for the XPS 700 Exchange Program is:

www.XPSUpgradeProgramDell.com