Dell corporate blog comments on ProcessorGate

Direct2Dell, Dell's English language corporate blog, has commented on ProcessorGate both in English and Chinese here .

• We have acknowledged the issue, and we have corrected the error in all materials.
• We have directly apologized to Dell China customers who were affected, and also informed them of the difference between the two processors.
• For customers who were not satisfied with these actions, we offered full refunds for returned T2300E-based systems.

Steve Rubel gives the response a good grade here. However, I have yet to see the Chinese version of the reply posted on any Chinese blogs or BBS forums. Is this a PR move for English speakers (and stock holders) or will Dell also reach out to those actually affected by the situation? If anyone finds instances of the Chinese response, please let me know.

Another interesting analysis of the situation comes from Corporate Social Responsibility blog here with more in depth look at it here in their PDF newsletter (hat tip to Imagethief for the link). The newsletter provides a history of Dell's struggle with negative media coverage in China as well as the bigger picture MNC's face here.

This analysis, in particular, is spot-on:

This phenomenon of taking companies to task for real or perceived problems is, I think, most noticeable in two broad areas. First, it seems that computer and related electronic products are often targeted because consumers of such items are more likely to be hooked up to the Internet and reasonably savvy about how to get their point across in BBS forums. There are, for example, numerous IT forums in China and several large and widely-read online magazines covering IT and related issues. Perhaps the only other product groups to attract more online attention are food and beauty products. The second broad area of online attack is multinational corporations. This is not to say that local companies are not attacked, but newspapers seem particularly eager to follow up on stories involving well known foreign brands. KFC, McDonald’s, Siemens, Nestlé, SKII, Wal-Mart, Nike, and others have all found themselves in the mainland media in the past year or so for various transgressions, ranging from product safety, through unions and advertising, to lay offs. The main reason for targeting large and well known brands is obvious: leading companies attract attention and negative stories about them sell papers (as is the case elsewhere). But I think it’s sometimes true that foreign corporations can attract more attention than local companies for a mix of reasons, including being held to a higher standard, pockets of local resentment at MNCs (for a range of reasons), and fewer connections (political or otherwise) that would keep them off the front pages of local newspapers.