One of Dell's stand out features was that you could buy direct, cut out the middle man and get machines customised to your wishes. This selling through the channel add's another layer of sales/distribution overhead and reduced flexibility.
I'm a Dell channel partner and used to really like Dell's operating model, however over the last year or so, you could see Dell changing their business model and now they are no different to any other box shifter on the market.
Dell will be losing more of my money unfortunately. They should be focussing more on the direct to market route in my opinion...