[photopress:it_gateway.jpg,full,alignright]Gateway is a computer company which has seen its ups and downs. Now it has announced a new premium line which Gateway and Digital China will jointly launch in China.
They will be nationally distributed and first will be available at Best Buy’s flagship Shanghai store. These will be fairly high end computers Intel Centrino Duo mobile processors and Intel Core 2 Duo processors running Vista.
Ed Coleman, Gateway’s CEO said, ‘China is home to some of the world’s most savvy computer users and we’re confident they will recognize the value Gateway brings to this market.’ Exclusive distributor will be Digital China.
Guo Wei, president and CEO, Digital China, said, ‘As China’s leading IT distributor, we are pleased to offer the premium Gateway brand to our customers nationwide.’
Gateway is possibly the third largest PC company in the U.S. and perhaps among the top ten worldwide. But not everywhere.
Gateway was founded on September 5, 1985, on a farm outside Sioux City, Iowa, by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond. It ships its computers in boxes which are printed as if they were Holstein cows and there is one in our illustration. Cow, not box. Still very distinctive.
After the dot com bust Gateway went through hard times and tried several strategies to return to profitability. This included withdrawal from international markets.
So if, for example, in Britain or Australia you had bought a Gateway computer suddenly you found the company to support you had disappeared. Gateway continued to suffer major losses as well as market share in the PC business.
On March 11, 2004, Gateway purchased low-cost PC marketer eMachines which gives it PCs at both ends of the market.
Gateway’s stock price has consistently trended lower since 2000 when in January shares were valued at over $60. As of now they are around the $1.14 mark.
Bias note. The writer bought a Gateway computer in both the UK and Australia.
Source: CNN:Money and research