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June 30, 2004
Kevin Rollins,
president and CEO,
Dell
In an interview with Silicon.com at Dell's headquarters here last week, Rollins said that the number of headlines Apple grabs does not worry him and that the company isn't "in the same league" as Dell.
"It's interesting the iPod has been out for three years and it's only this past year it's become a raging success," said Rollins, who is also Dell's president. "Well, those things that become fads rage, and then they drop off. When I was growing up there was a product made by Sony called the Sony Walkman--a rage, everyone had to have one. Well, you don't hear about the Walkman anymore. I believe that one-product wonders come and go. You have to have sustainable business models, sustainable strategy."
But Rollins was careful to add that this wasn't meant as any kind of disparagement of Apple. "They've done a nice job," he said.
president and CEO, Dell
Apple announced its new $499 entry-level Mac Mini--which is aimed at tempting wavering PC users to the Apple camp--last week, while Silicon.com was visiting Dell's headquarters.
But given Dell's historical commitment to aggressive pricing in the PC market and its dominant position in the United States, Rollins was, not surprisingly, unimpressed with the Mac Mini.
"It might take some here and there, but Apple's market share in the global computer business has really shrunk pretty far," he said. "Where they've been making success recently is not in the computer business, but in the iPod music business. So this might be an interesting new product, but I'm not really believing this is going to turn the industry upside down."
Dell recently extended its foray into the consumer market with a music download service to go with its own MP3 player, but Rollins said Dell will continue to make business customers its No. 1 priority.
"Our strategic focus has been on corporations and institutions, and selling them large server clusters and huge SAN (storage area network) installations," he said. "The data center isn't very sexy to write about but, frankly, that's where the money is. No. 1 is corporations and institutions."
Andy McCue of Silicon.com reported from Round Rock, Texas, where he traveled as a guest of Dell.
See more CNET content tagged:
Kevin Rollins, Apple Intel Mac Mini, SAN, upside, Sony Walkman
He is about technology.
Apple is about technology for life.
No Dell product ever (nor all their products cumulatively) ever did give so much excitement & joy from digital technologies to people.
It is about digital technologies coming to life. And technologies bending over to life, rather than asking people bend their lives and live with sodding gray noisy boring - but cheap! - Dell box on their desk.
Dell didn't create markets - it is always late comer. So this is not their moment to make notes.
As much as Apple did to advance PCs and digital market in general, Dell will always trail them. And this is not PC market anymore - this is "Consumer Electronics" - it is about fashion AND technology.
iPod has made history, iPod has made new market. Apple has created new market - digital musical distributions. Its consequences are only to be felt in future.
And as soon as iTMS will become commodity, Apple will move further, leaving this market to commodity professionals - companies just like Dell are.
P.S. I reiterate. As for me, Apple was always Consumer Electronics company, rather than "computer company" (as Dell). And its products, their facilites made for home users, are just highlight to this point. Dell with its partners can learn a lot.
The iPod simply was in the right place at the right time. People were looking to replace older walkmen and portable CD players. MP3s had become mainstream. The iPod was simply a more refined, brand-name device to do what a few dozen products do. It is a solid project, well placed, and riding a wave of great PR.
Does that mean the iPod will dominate the market forever? No, not at all, and in that, it is a fad. The Palm Pilot had a huge market-share, and years worth of head-start, and has seen all of that "simpler, better for life" advantage trashed. Pocket PC has kept the pressure on, and Palm is a fading giant.
In both cases, you'll have iPods and Palms around for many many years. But ultimately as more companies refine their products, and as users become comfortable branching out beyond the iPod, Apple will fade to be background again. Just like with the Mac. Apple won't be able to prevent itself from trying to control how people use the iPod. They'll try to keep all of the money and control. Other products will fill more and more niches and come up with unique innovations, until Apple's advantage has been bleed away.
I don't buy into the Apple hype, because I think it is a waste of money. When I had the option of an Apple IIc or a C-64, I bought the C-64. When I had the option of a Mac or PC, I went with a PC. When I had the option of a Palm or Win CE device, I went with CE. Given the choice of an iPod or the dozens of counterparts that will be on the market by this Christmas? I'll save the money and buy a Dell, or something else.
I'm not debating the quality of anything, or the insightful design of anything. But I've had to make this same bet again and again. I won't bet any differently this time either.
NWLB
http://www.nwlbnet.blotspot.com
Well Dell, you have lost my business and my recomendations.
I don't own any apple product (except iTunes), but between dell and microsofts constant FUD statements about other companies, I am thinking of switching loyalties. Dell and Microsoft are about the two least invintive companies out there. There typical stance is to wait till someone else comes up with an idea, test the idea, and if it works they copy the idea. Then they commence with telling everybody what a crappy company the other guy is and how they have created a new technology that is better.
Shame on Dell, Microsoft, and any other company doing business this way.
Comparing the iPod to the Sony Walkman? He says that we don't hear about the walkman anymore; Sony is one of the biggest consumer electronics maker in the world today; we don't hear about the walkman anymore, but we do hear about Gaming Consoles, Blu-Ray Technology, Mini-DVDs, and other technologies being developed by Sony. I'm also sure than in the 5 or 10 years to come we won't be hearing from the iPod but from other innovations from Apple.
Dell makes great products (I have an Inspiron Notebook) but they have fallen behind when it comes to innovate on new technology. I sincerely see no point in making these declarations, specially since Apple poses no real treath to Dell in the inmediate future.
I'm not defending it, just stating the reality.
Given the choice, so long as its a solid product, I'd rather buy the cheaper Dell version than the higher priced Apple.
NWLB
http://www.nwlbnet.blogspot.com
I dont think iPod is a fad, it can literally be sold as part of auto telematics. Think of the large market this would cater.
Not to think of the other applications such as a future iPod being your PDA, Cell Phone, Video viewing device, etc.
"Not to think of the other applications such as a future iPod being your PDA, Cell Phone, Video viewing device, etc."
The iPod is late in this and when all those funtions will be packed together it won't be innovative. Today you can buy any good handheld (Palm or PowerPC), where you can have all those functions added: even more actually, if you think you can also use GPS... My PDA already has those capabilities.
Or, maybe as it is usual for Apple, They will come up with an incredible design and people will see the light of a new profetic product, ignoring that cheaper options have already being available.
By the way Steve Jobs uses regularly a PalmOne Treo600.... (http://tinyurl.com/5umwx)
dashboard. The dimensions are surprisingly similar to those of
the mini.
Imagine the applications that could be operated with that
machine with regard to video, mapping, even function
monitoring of the automobile.
Sweet!
Rod
As for Nathan Boyle's comment, i disagree to a point. Apple has been by far one of the most innovative companies for Consumer electronics. The mac itself was an innovation, the iPod, iTms, their style and design associated with their products. It's odd that after apple releases a product or product change... Dell soon follow's suite. as for dependable cheap alternative? When you control the hardware quality yourself and the software is designed specifically for it there will be vast differences in apple's products and those made by windows manufactures. Apple's quality control is excellent. We could get into the technical aspects but i don't they'll let me post that much. The iPod will surely give-way to another device from apple and technology will continue to change. The sony walkman became just one in the crowd because the technology didn't change for cd's players. But then any CD worked in a CD player. Something that apple will eventually have to relinquish and let other services use the device for music. For now... it's driving up sales for both the iPod and iTms.
At last count, weren't there at least 4 different ipod versions? That would exclude it from the 1 hit wonder category, wouldn't it?
I think Mr. Rollins outsourced his brain to India. What a moron.
Computers won't ever make it into the home. Internet what? Windows who? You will never need more than 640k of memory either.
Personally, if this is the best that dell can come up with then it's a wonder they have made it this far. Make me wonder how long before they are a passing fad. You know even an eight-hundred pound gorilla can be taken down.
Dell's biggest weapon is FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Take that away from them (and Microsoft) and you have a company just like any other (well, larger).
Business is just like government. Uneducated people can be sucked into their BS. By that I didn't mean stupid people, just people who don't keep up with technology.
I think Dell is hoping that people will read this and think "don't buy and iPod because it will be useless tomorrow". I hope this backfires on Dell and causes iPod to get even bigger.
With all the crap comming from the mouth of microsoft and dell these days it's a wonder we are not drowning.
As for the UK, who cares? Oh, you and the Brits... but whatever, if Dell sucks in the UK, fine, but in the U.S. they have a crapload of customers and are a pretty big computer company.
Perhaps they don't innovate much (or at all), but their computers are pretty good and reliable for the most part, when it comes to hardware, and that's all you can really ask for from a computer company.
Now if only Microsoft didn't suck so much. The reliability of Windows sucks (and the UI sucks too), and that's the only 2 reasons I'd want to switch from Windows to the Mac.
"fad". Apple has only sold abut 10 million iPods so far. If they
can match Sony's success, they'll be doing just fine.
Wintel PCs won't be around forever either. When the Wintel era
ends, all those re-branded TVs and printers are not going to
keep Dell from imploding.
Funny how four years ago Michael Dell said Apple should close
shop and pay off it's investors. I took that as a sign to buy some
Apple stock. In FY2004, Dell stock price increased 18% and
Apple's stock price went up 330%. It's good to invest contrary to
Dell's advice.
Mark my words, as we speak Dell is beginning a project to
repackage it's laptop motherboard designs into a a 6x6x2 inch
desktop package to compete with the Mac mini. 99% of home
buyers don't want or need an expandable tower with fans that
sound like your bedroom is in a wind tunnel. Dell's problem,
however, is they can't improve the user experience because they
don't control the operating system, i.e. the part humans interact
with. Windows will be the same mediocre experience on a
smallish desktop as it is on a tower.
Time to buy some more Apple stock, methinks...
You may have a point about investing contrary to Dell's
opinions.
My Apple stock was $20 a share when I got it... hahahahaaa !
Maybe time to buy MORE, indeed.
about a company that does not even measure to a piece of sand
falling on his back? It's obvious that he wants you to buy their
MP3 solution, and it's obvious they have no real merits to
proclaim their product as superior. So the next best thing is to
resort to school yard tactics of "calling the other person names",
in the sense that the product means nothing. If it means
nothing, then why mention it at all?
Dell will never be a technology leader, they may always be a
sales leader. If i recall, a few years back they would have loved
to play in the Mac clone market. But Steve Jobs promptly killed
that when he came aboard. Could that be the source of his
wish to continually proclaim the demise of Apple?
Here's a little inside tip. There isn't going to be a demise of
Apple. No other company on this planet garners so much loyalty
and devotion from its consumers than does Apple. Its not
because its the cool, or the latest thing. They've been around
longer than Dell, and will probably be around long after Dell has
been sucked into another company or replaced by another
company. The key is the creation of innovative, well designed,
easy to use, elegant products that work. But as far is Dell is
concerned, its the creative process that they lack, and the
important factor that a company will always be around.
This is industry has to continually move forward, as with
anything else in life. Apple contributes via their ideas, designs
and refinements. They are a source of inspiration for other
computer related companies, including Dell.
Dell should merely applaud them, and thank them for thier
innovation, instead of poo-pooing what they build upon.
Apple, not IBM, not Microsoft has been the shining light that has
guided these companies through a dark tunnel in the personal
computer arena.
These same companies, including Microsoft, and IBM,
proclaimed the Graphical User Interface (GUI) as a fad in the
1980s, while secretly working on their own projects, (Microsoft
was actually contracted as a programming source to help finish
their OS in the 80s because they needed manpower, but we
know what came out of that). They proclaimed the mouse as
fad, they said that personal computers would never need more
than a megabyte of ram (i think Apple might have been included
on that one).
The fact is, shame on Dell. They make a lot of money, sell more
products and enjoy a long life and future on providing products
that were created by others. Hey, but I know it's only human
nature to be jealous of those who can do something you can't.
you waste your time to mention them in an interview? That
really is an interesting comment coming from someone with
competing products.
It seems to me that people who have an iPod want a Mac and people whose Dell is all cruded up with spyware and viruses also want a Mac.
The people who want a Dell just want a cheap computer and herein lies Dell's vulnerability. I would trade a $500 Mac for a $500 Dell anyday. As peoples' home computers continue to malfunction as a result of spyware and viruses will they blame Dell or Microsoft or both?
It is plausible that in the not too distant future that Dell will be in the same club as the IBM PC, Compaq and a host of other names long forgotten -- all driven out by a "fad" coupled with cheap manufacturing.
People will remember Apple and Jobs, but Kevin-who?
Too little, too late dude.
Large quantity with total lack of quality is Dull's vision.
What the H**L has Dell Invented?
OS = no
Processor Chip = no
Industry leading software = no
hardware / hardrives / CD-DVD Drives = no
Monitors = no
Wireless technology = no
Cheap & clunky PC imitations, poorly manufactured in third world countries by outsourced foreign workers = YES
Technical Support by outsourced employess in New
Dell-hi India = YES
DELL, shut up, sit down & get out of the way.
Dull = Yesterday's news faking its' way to sell cheap crates & TVs to the masses that have been hypnotized by their propaganda & WallMart prices.
Dude, you're getting a Dud...
Dell has always been best at supply chain management. Their
inventory is tiny, measured in hours. By the way, Apple has great
supply chain management too--mostly learned from Dell, I
believe.
If you want to make a lot of money, innovate on the process of
making money, not on the product. Sad but true. I remember
reading somewhere that just about everyone can make a
hamburger better than McDonald's.
Writing this on a new iBook G4!
- this guy makes me laugh
- by January 18, 2005 2:50 PM PST
- Do you think his kids have iPods and just haven't told daddy
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