Is Dell whistling in the dark?

Our surprise news of the day: Dell is hiring 500 engineers, on top of another 2,000 sales and support staff.

The last time we looked, Dell was still reeling from reports of , an SEC inquiry and --not exactly an environment that seemed conducive to expansion. And at least some analysts don't see any anytime soon.

At the same time, Dell did make one important decision in recent months by aligning itself with chipmaker AMD in a high-profile blow to longtime partner Intel. Given Intel's direction--cutting 10,500 jobs--perhaps Dell sees brighter times ahead simply by this change in chip strategy alone.

Blog community response:

"I don't know. It seems to me like Dell is just beating a dead horse. 'Redesign the hardware' to do what? Run the same stuff?"
--The opinions expressed here...

"500 engineers is a good start, next they should do something about call centers in India."
--DecliningUSDollar, on News.com's TalkBack

"The low end Intel-based system is almost 50% more than the cheapest AMD-based system, and the cheapest dual core machines are at a similar premium. The cheapest Core 2 Duo is more than twice the price of the cheapest AMD dual core. These are not trivial differences."
--Neowin.net