While as customers we pretty much demand and expect our hardware to work, and have it replaced if needed, it's very rare we get free upgrades from the vendor we bought it from. That being said, it's a rare and interesting event to see Dell's plans for people who purchased the very pricey XPS 700 systems. It seems that those "early adopters" won't have to suffer the same way many other early adopters do, with Dell planning free motherboard upgrades to people who own those systems. The replacement motherboard, which has yet to be shipped, will support more features and newer processors that the XPS 700's stock board does not. Why are they doing this? Neil Hand of Dell had this to say:
At Dell, our number one goal is to delight our customers with our products and services. As anyone who reads Direct2Dell knows, we did not do that for some of our XPS 700 customers. On behalf of Dell, I want to apologize for that. We have taken steps to improve your experience.
It is true that purchasing the XPS 700 left many with a bitter taste in their mouth, whether it be limited upgrade potential or the severe supply shortage that hit many when it was released. For those eligible, they can bring it in to any Dell-authorized service center to have the upgrade performed. They'll also have the option of upgrading to a quad core processor at a 25% discount, which, at the current prices for PIB quad-cores, is significant.