A smart former corporate bulk-PC-purchaser (and Catter) told me that Gateway and Dell wrestle for supremacy in a number of ways requiring knowing who's om top for what, updated at the time a purchase is planned.
The days of "brand loyalty" in any "civilized" country's companies is long gone.
The global economy means that ALL companies now shift strategy at the drop of a hat, and sometimes even go into businesses one would think antithetical to their "usual" line of business or (in this case) their "usual" business practice or marketing strategy.
This is what happened when most of the world was getting all excited about globalization. It created a massive, cascading set of changes, including how the dollar's worth is now calculated.