In Stock, But IBM Won't Ship

[Leon]

Ordered a 23739ZU, still says Back ordered-Call, Estimted Ship Date 7/9. BUT ZDNT Shopping shows 11 vendors with stock, with eCost listing 10 on hand, and THENERDS.NET have 100!!! . I need to buy through IBM because of employee discount. But how come retailers have it, but IBM doesn't?

[Skywing]

Retailers buy in bulk, thus bringing in more money, a $100,000 order is more important than a $2k-3k order

[Leon]

yeah, but they pay less markup....

[Daniel]

I was on thenerds.net and I looked up their Thinkpads. They have the 2373GUU which is http://www5.pc.ibm.com/us/products.nsf/ ... p/_2373GUU

But then I look up the 2373KTU which is http://www5.pc.ibm.com/us/products.nsf/ ... p/_2373KTU .

Notice the price difference? The specs seem identical with the exception of the KTU costing less and having a better processor. Is there any reason for this? They're both not express models.

[JaneL]

>Retailers buy in bulk, thus bringing in more money, a $100,000 order is more important than a $2k-3k order
>

Not to mention the SLAs.

[csarrasin]

Notice the price difference? The specs seem identical with the exception of the KTU costing less and having a better processor. Is there any reason for this? They're both not express models.

The thing about the KTU is that lots of us are drooling over it but AFAIK, nobody's got their hands on one yet (as seems to be the case with all the 2.0 GHz models) but I agree with you that it looks like a really good bargain compared to other models.

I've got one on order from Bill and he says they should ship "soonish" so I'll keep you posted

[Daniel]

You're right about the KTU being a good value. It's basically the best performing T42 configuration available with the best components other than the 14.1" screen. It's less expensive than the GUU and the 1.8GHZ HTU.

You know what else is interesting? I was looking at Samsung panels and the price difference between a 14.1 SXGA and 15 UXGA replacement panel is about $50. Not much when comparing it to the ~$570 IBM is asking.