A week after adding its budget-priced Inspiron laptops to the all launched in late June along with the M1330 — can be ordered in eight hues, including basic black or white, as well as brown, red, blue, green, pink or yellow. Dell has tagged the line with the marketing slogan “Yours is Here.”

“Producing smaller quantities is not the issue — it’s mainly an issue of scale,” Menchaca said, echoing what Senior Vice President Alex Gruzen said about the XPS laptop three weeks ago. “We’ll continue to work directly with suppliers to ultimately increase our production on color notebooks,” he added.

Another bottleneck for Dell: LCDs. “Some screen sizes are in short supply,” said Menchaca. Earlier this month, Gruzen also called out screens, specifically backlit LED displays, as contributing to the slow delivery of M1330 orders. Dell’s Inspirons are equipped with 17-in. (1720/1721), 15.4-in. (1520/1521) and 14.1-in. (1420) screens, all standard sizes for the laptop computer industry. Some analysts, however, had remarked at the beginning of August that all companies were which at the end of the May said it would has added what he called “dedicated sales and support resources specifically to address the customer experience issues that these delays cause.”

As with earlier reports by Menchaca and Gruzen regarding system delays, customers quickly waded in. Almost none of the more than 100 comments left on Menchaca’s Friday post were positive toward Dell.

“You guys are building laptops, not Gulfstreams,” said a user identified as “Mother of all creatures great and small” on the blog. “I understand how a production glitch here or supply problem there could impact output but you make it seem like you are the victim of the perfect storm. You’ve been making computers for YEARS! For God’s sake, waiting a month for a laptop is insane.”

“This has become the party line,” said “Is There An Echo?” in another comment. “Pretty much exactly what was posted about the 1330. So we are back to paint and displays causing these delays? Sorry, but it doesn’t fly.”

Another customer, who said he was still waiting for an Inspiron 1521 ordered July 23, was more concise. “So, here’s to crappy service, lame excuses, and no real compensation,” said “Frustrated Supervisor.”

Currently, Dell’s Web site notes delays for most paint options on the Inspiron line. When ordering the Inspiron 1521, for example, only those with black or white cases do not tack on additional days to the estimated ship date. Of the other six picks, the delay range runs from one day (brown) to more than three weeks (pink or yellow).