Dell taking more risks
Much has been made of Dell's retail makeover, but it's actually part of a larger trend toward experimentalism.
The company that has largely avoided unproven product categories is jumping all over them suddenly. Case in point: several years ago, when Microsoft was pushing tablet computing, Dell was fairly adamant that, no thanks, tablet PCs weren't something the company was interested in making.
"I think it is really unknown at this point how big the market is," CEO Michael Dell said in a 2002 interview about tablet PCs. "Dell, of course, likes to participate in high-volume markets, and until we can determine the size of the market we are not ready to decide at what level we will participate."
The Latitude XT is Dell's first foray into tablet computing.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)Fast-forward to late 2007, when Dell introduced its first tablet PC, the Latitude XT. Tick forward some more to this week when the second version, the Latitude XT2, was leaked onto the Web. Tablet computing, to Microsoft's chagrin, still has never really taken off--tablets comprised 3.25 percent of the worldwide notebook market in 2007, according to market research firm IDC. Yet, Dell's staking out its claim in that category.
So what's changed? Well, almost everything.
"The old Dell was about how everything had to improve with scale. In other words, any fixed cost investment had to get more profitable with volume," said Roger Kay, analyst and president of Endpoint Technologies. But after the leadership change a year ago, "Michael (Dell) said there were no sacred cows when he took back over."
Now Dell can't seem to stay out of niche markets. Besides the Latitude XT, in the last year Dell has launched a ruggedized laptop, a consumer-friendly all-in-one desktop, and began offering Linux pre-installed on some PCs. Plus, there's constant chatter about the company re-entering the handheld market.
The PC industry is moving toward increased mobility, so tablets and rugged notebooks are part of a larger trend. But they also represent opportunities that Dell can't afford to miss anymore.
In Dell's heyday, its mammoth commercial computing clients would choose a variety of machines they wanted Dell to supply; if one of them was too much of a niche product, Dell would simply partner with a manufacturer that did make it.
"But now they're saying, we don't want to keep giving away those opportunities because that's decent margin (being left) on the table," said Richard Shim, PC analyst for IDC. Now, "they go out and create their own versions of these products."
Within the overall trend toward mobility, commercial clients, and even consumers, are demanding more and more specific usage models, and Dell, it seems, is trying to adapt.
"The market is evolving beyond generic solutions. There are new opportunities in more specialized products," said Shim.
Evolution seems to be the name of the game down in Round Rock, Texas, these days. The company has undergone a major transformation of its business plan since Michael Dell stepped back into the executive suite as CEO.
Along with that has come this marked shift toward experimentalism at the 20-year-old company. Though Dell's hallmark for its first two decades in business was its sharp, efficient supply chain and direct-to-customers sales model, now you can find a Dell almost anywhere you look: Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart Stores, and more.
Its product choices are different, too. "In the past, Dell would adopt new technologies faster than most, but new products more slowly," noted Kay. While it was happy to move from one processor generation to the next fairly rapidly, Dell was far more circumspect about getting into a niche market like PDAs or music players. Of course, Dell's expertise has always been in the enterprise market, which isn't particularly fast-moving. But targeting consumers is a different animal--they expect more product innovation and faster product cycle times.
Dell's ruggedized laptop, a first for the PC maker.
(Credit: Dell)In trying to garner more consumer attention, Dell also has been more adventurous, with firsts for it like colored laptops last summer, the stylish design of the XPS laptop line, and the XPS One, an iMac-esque all-in-one PC. Dell even went as far as co-branding the XPS gaming line with World of Warcraft.
"It's more like they're dropping a lot of bait in the water to see what works," Kay noted.
Sure, Dell is trying a lot of new things, but it's got to do something different. No longer the largest seller of PCs overall, it's also recently fallen behind the Acer-Gateway-Packard Bell behemoth in notebook sales.
"They have to be risky to reverse their misfortunes here," Shim said. "That takes time when you're trying to change your personality. I'm sure they'll make missteps along the way because everyone does. But the positive is that they are making these changes. The writing is not just on the wall, it's in neon."
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
The good stuff ain't free anymore.
reconsidering rebranding the company with a new name.
Because when I think of the word Dell visuals of "Walmart",
"Kmart" and the word "cheap" are thought up. Not to mention its
such a self serving egomaniacal name.
As for Dell Industrial design although its better than the beige-
boxed-cubicle-efficent computers they had before to me the
XPS line looks over-done almost as if aMichael Dell himself gave
the Head Designer Position to stereotypical pimp portrayed in
the movies.
The Power Edge series is relatively inexpensive (Dell sells 1U
servers for as low as $1600), but they run quite well, and have
lasted for years beyond their orginal specs.
/P
All you NEED to do is BUY Gold Tech Support. Keywords being: NEED and BUY
Good luck Pals, that is just how the new game rolls from what I am experiencing from Dell.
If you can contact me directly at customer_advocate@dell.com with 'ATTN: Larry (monitor)' in the subject (to ensure it gets to me) I will be more than happy to set up the replacement. There are some specific pieces of information I would need, but I'll wait to go over that in email.
If you have any questions for me I will be more than happy to answer them. If you have other feedback you wanted to provide I will be happy to have that as well.
Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
I have Dell Gold Technical Support. One word to describe this group is AMAZING (not a joke, not an opinion). I have a new Dell Precision 690. Dual Zeon Quads and a couple of great NVIDIA Quadros.
When I received this unit there were some configuration problems with the system that had corrupted the OS. My IT Company deferred to Dell Gold Tech Support. Top-tier customer service experience, respect, and performance. Through my process with Dell gold I received instant EXPERT feedback. Immediate return phone calls. A FOUR hour walk-through for a total reconfiguration of my Dell 690 (hardware, New OS, almost everything was altered). Wow, this tech knew his stuff because is was a 100% EXPERT and set this thing up to PERFECTLY address my workflow in every single respect and detail. Even things I was not doing and I am not an armature (20+ riding the digital pony---every single digital file is archived and retrievable by date and keyword since 1998).
He knew the machine inside and out and used the exact same unit for his personal home machine. I doubt very few could have set-up my unit up like this Dell Gold Tech. My IT people need to get paid more for knowing of Dells top experts 'GOLD' and how it works. Every Gold Tech I have ever spoken to is a 100% EXPERT...the best for your unit...period.
Defective items? Next day over-night...hehe. No questions, just send your defective unit back when you get the new one. A delivery company delivered Dell product to wrong office in our building. Dell's response? Remove original charge and overnight the speaker bar. Sure, only a $16 dollar monitor speaker bar but how does this? Not many for me that I can think of except Dell.
Gold Tech Support. If you do not have it you REALLY do not know YOU need it even if your are a seasoned user that has done most of this type of stuff before. ALWAYS buy GOLD Support. You will never-ever regret it.
GOLD really means GOLD
IMHO best support on Planet Earth.
Thanks for sharing your Gold Tech Support experience - and thanks for being our customer.
I get better than that for free at HP.
Dell sucks.
You should put in a few stray typos and bad grammer to keep it real.
Something they currently do not do.
- Faulty Monitor
- by markiv_81 March 24, 2008 9:19 PM PDT
- Hi,
- Reply to this comment
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(19 Comments)I work with Dell I would try to help you if you can provide me with the monitor serial number at the back of the monitor. It is a long alphanumeric number. You may contact me at vikram_fernandez@dell.com . For ease of finding the fault you may check with the following.
1) Does reseating cable at monitor / computer end resolve problem.
2) Does the problem show itself during the monitor self test that is when the monitor cable is not attached to the computer.
This is important to isolate the problem to the cable or the monitor or the computer. When the monitor is sent the cables are normally not sent hence it is safer to ensure there is no cable fault.