Slashdot Mirror
Dell To Enter PDA Market
soundsop writes "CNET News.com reports that Dell is poised to enter the PDA market. Michael Dell states that announcements for US PDA products are coming "really soon". Will I have 50 configuration options on my Dell PDA?"
In the good old days, everyone had an account on the central company server. (I had 250kB on an old winchester drive!) Nowdays we all have an account (or several) accesable over the internet. Over the years the internet has become mobile and I want to reach my files etc. even when I travel. This is probably one reason to why the PDA market has exploded in such a way as it has. Another important factor is the price and size of electronics; one can actually make a palm sized useful computer today to a price that some of us can afford.
This move by DELL shows that the PDA market has grown, and become more mature. That is, PDAs are not only geek toys, but today they can be quite useful (even though I still use mine for vrally!).
In the future I imagine almost everyone carrying PDAs that can be wirelessly conneced to a screen (or a projector) to show stuff, or terminals with proper kbds and mice to do real work. The PDA will be the phone, computer, wallet and calendar of today, and hopefully not running Palladium!
On the other hand, this could be simply another way to push WindowsCE through some backdoor agreement with Bill and Co. But we can only wait and see.
I just hope that Dell's PDA doesn't turn into another Palm clone (Handspring, et. al)
I guess they are trying to work around the poorer and poorer PC sales.
Now, they'll have a hard-time against Sony, HP(aq), Palm and also Sharp whose Zaurus is really the kind of programmable gadget one may look for.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Does anyone know what exactly will Dell be selling? Will it be PDAs that they made themselves (ala Martha Stewart), or will they just be rebranding some other companies PDAs (like they are apparently going to with Lexmark printers)
:0), the one thing Dell can always be relied on is to care about quality. They don't just stick any old crap on the shelves and sell to my mother, so hopefully they'll manufacture them themselves.
Personally I hope they make them themselves. While I don't want to get into an argument of white-box versus brand name computers (damn, I mentioned it, here come the flames
Plus like the story says, being able to customize my PDA a million billion ways (if only my iPaq could have 512MB RAM) is just plain cool
===
You know that guy who stole your girlfriend away from you in the summer of '95? He's going to die.
I wonder why Dell considers this a good move. It has potential - like Apple, they can offer you a handheld gizmo (ipod) with your computer... but is Dell really going to put out their own line of handhelds? Or just offer handsprings (or something) in a bundle?
If they're just going to offer handsprings, their revenue stream will be severely limited, since their main business model is to sell hardware fairly cheaply. If they put enough of a markup on the handheld hardware, people won't want to buy them (I hope) because they'll be able to purchase them elsewhere for less.
If they put out their own piece of hardware, it's a major departure from what Dell already does. It has massive potential, if it's a good piece of kit, but it will be coming into a saturated market no matter what. Right now, Dell is a value added reseller. I'm not sure they would want to try to be something else.
The only other option that I could imagine them thinking is that they will be able to 'guarantee' that whatever handheld they sell will work with whatever desktop they sell, due to software they pre-load on both.
Er... wait. Actually that's a great idea. Dell, do that. They won't get the hardware geek market, but then, they never have. They'll get the home family market, and rake in money for software that pretty much already exists. It's good sense on their part.
... If Dell is doing this without the expectation of making lots of money. I think they see PDAs becoming more mainstream every year, and they are getting their feet wet now just so they don't have to play catch-up in a couple of years.
any thoughts?
... and a purchaser of serveral large PO's for business in my area, i have always found Dell to be top quality, pretty Linux (at least SuSE) friendly, and offering great support options. i see no reason why their PDA offering would be any different, and i'm honestly curious to see just how Dell's track record with servers, desktops, and appliances translates to a rather specific market full of *very* picky users.
that said, i'm a skeptic, and with Palm and Clie and Zaurus out there, Dell is going to have to be damn near perfect in their first offering, otherwise it's just a foray into a fashion trend like the Web PC.
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
There will be more than one configuration (two or three), but most important of all is the price.
Pictures included in the link.
-------
Bite Me Fanboy!!
Somehow I think Dell is gearing toward the corporate market rather than the personal one, making all those "I'm not getting one" comments moot. As a personal gadget addict, I agree with them - I wouldn't get one. But I build my own computers too.
Dell may be going for the bulk computer/PDA sales. Imagine companies and government agencies buying PDAs like they buy (and probably at the same time they buy) computers from Dell. Maybe they believe IT departments disburse these like they disburse computers. Imagine if Dell included better support for their PDAs in their desktop support contracts that they would for standard Palms/PocketPCs.
The day you realize Anonymous Coward isn't the name of a really prolific user, then its time to create your own
You can build a PDA like a PC or a pizza. Dell has enjoyed tremendous success by having super-efficient supply chain management. They're able to build PCs using off-the-shelf parts cheaper than anyone else. It's all because they keep inventories low and have tried to make every step as efficient as possible.
For this to work in a PDA, they only thing they can realistically do is co-brand someone else's device. If that happens they won't be much more than a sales force for the other person's technology.
If they decide to actually design and build one themselves, I think it would be a major shift in corporate strategy.
I can imagine that they would be rather interested in the Dell product simply because it is Dell.
And the big thing there is that it would displace everything else (Palm, Linux based PDA) with Win CE, virtually assuring MS dominance in the PDA field as other large companies also standardize on Dell.
At the risk of sounding stupid, of course it does.
The larger the number of people in the market, the greater the competition. Given that the software specifications are pretty much the same (helped by Microsofts specifications) you've got only a few things that companies can compete on such as hardware specs (including dimensions and weight), battery life, upgradability and best of all price.
So if more players in the market causes others to start making strides to produce a better product, then it can only be seen as a good thing.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
If you're a fan of the PocketPC devices, Dell's entry is nothing but a good thing as they'll drive down prices across the board. If you're a Palm fan however, this is yet another blow since at this price-point, a mid-tier Palm OS device will have trouble competing with a flashy, full-featured Pocket PC device in the mainstream markets.
Now they make 10/100/1000 "PowerConnect" switches. So why not enter the PDA market?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I had a conference about storage with our Dell rep last week. He noticed that I had just bought a Toshiba e740. He told me to save my reciept because they are going to be price cutting everyone. The price he quoted me was $250... Now, he may just be blowing smoke up my ass, because he is a salesman after all. FYI...
Dell makes some really nice computers. Good hardware and excellent service. But what Dell does better than most others is marketing. You all know the "Dude" commercial.
PDAs need marketing. The only ones I've seen in use are by my teammates and other nerdy types. They need to be more mainstream, like telephones. Marketing will help increase the installed base, lower production/consumer costs, and increase application.
Dell may piggyback the PDA marketing with thier highly sucessful computer ads. I'd love to see a PDA for under $100. Marketing can do this.