Aren't a lot of Gateway's CE products still in limbo? Also, you have said Gateway wasn't making much money selling consumer electronics. What about direct sales? What changes might you have in mind for that, such as bringing back the ability to configure a PC on the Web site? Are you eyeing non-US markets seriously? The announcement that Best Buy will carry Gateway's PCs was a big win. How did that come about, and what comes next?
We are headed back toward configurability. Frankly, I think we took our eye off the ball when it came to the Web, and we are rebuilding the architecture to allow us to truly configure to order. There are markets such as the game market in the premium desktop space that require that you offer some customisation to customers. It's something that we are definitely committed to, and at this point, I will leave it at that.
International is an area that a lot of people ignore. Our ability to become a global brand does exist. American brands are widely sought-after around the world, and products that can offer greater value through either speed to market or through better configuration for the price are sought-after around the world. And with our business model, I believe that we can be competitive in just about any market in the world.
It came about because of a lot of hard work, and I think it came about because Best Buy, through its due diligence, intelligence, and general market power, was able to understand the value of the Gateway brand in the computer space. What it means to us is going from 188 outlets that were company-owned to more than 600 outlets. It's tremendous exposure that we could never do on our own. We are not stopping with Best Buy, so just hang on.
