Dell Offers $100 For Old iPods

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Dell Offers $100 For Old iPods

Posted by pudge on Thursday July 1, 2004 @07:01AM from the mmmm-arketing dept.

Mz6 writes "Dell unveiled an offer that grants music player customers a $100 rebate on a 15GB Digital Jukebox when they send in an Apple iPod music player to be recycled. 'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.' Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch and brings the overall cost for the DJ down to $99." Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

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Why? by amigan940 · 2004-07-01 07:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

I don't know many people who would want to trade in their iPod for a largely inferior product...besides, low cost becomes a non-issue when you've already purchased the higher-priced product.

--
dd if=/dev/zero of=`df / | awk '/^\/dev/ {print $1}' | sed 's/s[0-9][a-z]//'` count=1 bs=512 && shutdown -r now
1. Re:Why? by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · 2004-07-01 08:02 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  While I prefer the Apple interface, there are no other special features about the iPod that aren't duplicated in the Dell player.
  
  AAC support (including but not limited to FairPlay), contacts and calendars, text notes, on-the-go playlists, auto-sync your whole library or one or more playlists, an alarm clock, FireWire, a 25-minute skip buffer, that cool solitaire game, and a partridge in a pear tree.
  
  (The Dell site didn't say anything obvious about a skip buffer. If it's got one, scratch that one off the list. Neither the Dell nor the iPod include a bird or a tree. That was just for fun.)
  
  --
  
  I write in my journal
2. Re:Why? by dougmc · 2004-07-01 08:30 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  a 25-minute skip buffer
  Hard drives do not `skip'. So there's no need for a skip buffer.
  However, it's possible that a jolt or something could stop the hard drive from delivering data for a second or two -- in that case, a few seconds of buffer space would be a good thing. (However, any jolt that's this strong risks damaging the hard drive itself, stopping it from delivering data forever.) But 25 minutes would be silly -- one minute would be far more than enough.
  The reason that you'd want 25 minutes of buffering would be power conservation. 25 minutes of 128 kB mp3s is only about 25 MB, so it's not that much memory. What happens is your hard drive spins up, the player buffers the next 25 MB of music to play into RAM, and then the hard drive spins down, and stays spun down until 20 or so minutes elapse, or until you manually pick a song that's not in it's buffer already. When either one happens, it spins up, fills it's buffer again, and goes back to sleep.
  An added bonus of this is that a hard drive that is not spinning is much less likely to be damaged by a shock than one that is spinning.
3. Re:Why? by Blondie-Wan · 2004-07-01 11:01 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Features I don't need: - AAC - no DRM for me, thank you
  
  AAC doesn't have anything to do with DRM. Music downloaded from the iTunes Music Store does have DRM, but you can also rip your own AACs, just as you can your own MP3s or whatever, and they won't have DRM on them.
4. Re:Why? by arminw · 2004-07-01 12:47 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  What about the iPod owner who downloaded a lot of music from the iTunes store and would like to continue doing this? Will the Dell unit play that music? Will the user first have to burn all the stuff from iTunes to CDs and then re-import them to the Dell player? I suspect that not too many iPod owners who already have iTunes music will go to all that trouble for a clearly inferior device such as the Dell DJ.
  
  --
  All theory is gray
Hmm... by arieswind · 2004-07-01 07:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' Or maybe, they just want to get more ipods off the market, and more of their digital jukeboxes in consumers hands
Not so great..... by Osgyth · 2004-07-01 07:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's a $100 REBATE. Means you still have to buy Dell's crap.....
1. Re:Not so great..... by FlipmodePlaya · 2004-07-01 07:10 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  From my limited knowledge, the DDJ isn't at all bad. It's made by Creative, I believe, and I hear good things about their Zen line of players. The price is pretty good (there are cheaper), and the remote is a nice touch.
  
  Note that I'm far from a Dell fan.
What BS by GillBates0 · 2004-07-01 07:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.
Typical marketspeak. It just has to contain a lot of "good words" like plusses, drive, offer...it doesn't have to mean anything.
It just makes them look desperate more than anything else. Come out with a superior product, and people will automatically aware of the "plusses" they have to offer.

--
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
1. Re:What BS by stuph · 2004-07-01 08:15 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Heck, Linux has faced some tough roads due to the marketing of an inferior product.
  
  Thank god the obligatory Linux zealot comment was thrown in here.. Linux has faced some tough roads due to many factors, most of them unrelated to Microsoft's marketing abilities. The biggest ones include a lack of an easy-to-follow setup procedure, a lack of a way to easily install programs without compiling them yourself, a desktop interface system that is little more than windows around command lines, etc.. I'm not saying that many of these problems aren't being worked on, but those are much larger barriers to popular usage than Microsoft's marketing...
  
  --
  --Less Thinkin', More Drinkin'...
Or... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-01 07:06 · Score: 2, Insightful

Spend 0.99, get a 1 in 100,000 chance of getting a new iPod
Re:thats a bit low by goldspider · 2004-07-01 07:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

You can't just toss something like that out without explaining WHY you think it's "unethical".
I for one don't see a problem with it. It's not as if Dell is holding guns to people's heads demanding they hand over their iPods.

--
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
who is this really for? by kaan · 2004-07-01 07:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

"Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch and brings the overall cost for the DJ down to $99."

As an iPod owner (and a former owner of several other mp3 players), I think this plan is not going to accomplish much for Dell.

Think about it, nobody has ever said you should by an iPod for it's low cost. On the contrary, it's just about the most expensive player on the market. So who buys one? People who want to be trendy (Apple is way trendier than Dell), and people who want the best mp3 player out there (not trying to start a flame war here, but the iPod interface is head and shoulders above the rest). So by offering free shipping, free songs, etc., I don't see how Dell will be able to woo very many people away from an iPod (even if it's a dead iPod).

For the people who want the least expensive player out there, or who don't really mind the lesser interfaces of the other players, I don't see that crowd having bought an iPod in the first place, so they won't be affected by this offer either.

This leaves me wondering, who this offer is really targeted at? It sounds more like a PR stunt designed to steal some of Apple's thunder for owning the digital music player market.
1. Re:who is this really for? by glenrm · 2004-07-01 08:28 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  It is also PR designed to use $99 and Dell Player in the same sentence. But it makes good sense for Dell to have a product in this category, if somebody is ordering a Dell, I could see this as an easy checkbox to add to the order.
  
  --
  Onward to the Aether Sphere!
Dell admitting they aren't as good by chia_monkey · 2004-07-01 07:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.'

That's kinda funny. First they are nice and vague saying "the plusses we have to offer", but then they go on saying "what separates us from the understood leader". So...to paraphrase..."trade in your superior product for our inferior one. thank you"

--

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Sleazy Dell strikes again by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-01 07:12 · Score: 3, Insightful

I absolutely hate rebate programs like this. Dell has no use for a bunch of broken down iPods which is all they will get with this promotion. All they are doing is proving that they are ripping off an extra $100 from all their customers who don't have a dead iPod.

This is just like the "trade in any film camera, get $x off a digital camera" where x is a function of the price of the new camera and has nothing to do with the dead film one (disposables don't count).
Re:Brilliant by rjung2k · 2004-07-01 07:16 · Score: 2, Insightful

The result is win-win for the consumer because, assuming the Dell players are nice in their own merit...

Big assumption there. If the Dell DJ was any good, they wouldn't need a stunt like this to gain market share.

I'm sure Steve Jobs is laughing his head off over this.

--
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
Re:Rebates ... Dell by MarkGriz · 2004-07-01 07:21 · Score: 5, Insightful

Like all rebates, they hope you forget to mail it in, or they give you some BS story about how you forgot to submit the proper proof of purchase.

--
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Bah! "Free" by sup4hleet · 2004-07-01 07:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

"Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch"

It's not free, it's included in the price. Just like buy one get one free is really just a half off sale with a catch (you can't just buy one half off). Advertisers push that "free" crap to make you thin you're getting something for nothing even though they still make a profit. Hey, Free Beer! (you just have to drink it out of a $10 cup).
Re:What happens to iPods when they die? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-01 07:32 · Score: 1, Insightful

Whatever store that is (care to dish?) truly deserves great contempt for Organ destruction. The ambiance of a big instrument is something of beauty. Especially is they were the good ones from the 70s and before.
Re:Flames? Here's some by outZider · 2004-07-01 07:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

In the end, how you feel is all that matters. The UI is better for /me/, so /I/ buy the iPod.

--
- oZ
// i am here.
Re:Only dead iPods will apply..... by pherris · 2004-07-01 07:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

Agreed, ebay showed only one dead ipod for sale, with 13 bids at $75.00.
This dell/ipod makes no sense. I mean really, is there one person here that would trade a working ipod for a $100 coupon towards anything dell makes? Even if Apple didn't have such a loyal following, on engineering alone the ipod wins. Add in the fact that music from the iTunes music store IFAIK won't download to anything but an iPod and this is a pretty stupid offer. It's like asking a Mac user to switch from OS X to Windows XP. What in the world made the people at Dell think this would ever work?
I sure the folks in Cupertino are having a big laugh over it.

--
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Re:What happens to iPods when they die? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-01 07:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

side note: I used to work at a big music store (headquartered in MN) that would destroy thousands of perfectly good pianos and organs to take them off the market, so they could sell more electronic and upright pianos.
Please tell us who this "Big Music Store" is, so I never do business with the sacrilegious assholes.
Destroying a baby-grand to sell another electronic piano? *shudder*
Re:thats a bit low by illumin8 · 2004-07-01 08:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

Why? I work for a company that manufacturers portable medical diagnostic equipment.

Pretty much every company in this field offers a mail-in rebate (often times as much as the original purchase price) for our devices if you send in any competitors device.

We regularly box up the devices that are sent to us and ship them back to their original manufacturer so that they know to take those devices out of their support database and to kind of "rub it in their faces" that we've had X number of their customers switch to our product (they do the same to us).

I can say for a fact that this does not happen in the computer industry. Companies like IBM, HP, and Sun realize that if they leave trade-in equipment in circulation, it will just end up on eBay somewhere, where it will be competing against their own salespeople for new revenue. For this reason, any competitive trade ins are always destroyed. There's no point in sending it back to the original manufacturer who will only remanufacture it and resell it. Why would we give money to our competitors.

I suggest your company should strongly consider doing the same. Don't you know that your competitors probably have the ability to refurbish or remanufacture their own equipment and sell it to people again?

--
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Fence your stolen iPods by JLavezzo · 2004-07-01 08:11 · Score: 3, Insightful

Since there were reports a couple weeks ago that theves are targeting iPods, sounds like Dell wants to make it easy to fence them!
Offer has problems with it. by catwh0re · 2004-07-01 08:23 · Score: 2, Insightful

It doesn't work with the easiest online music store, that has the best restrictions (or lack thereof), that are the same for every single song & album, that I purchase. I like to be in reasonable control and "own" my music.
I'd rather die before using the visual abortion that is windows media player. (pre iTunes, i muchly perferred winamp, as it wasn't a under optimised clutterific splendor of crap that WMP has built itself to be.)
Also i'd like a product that actually has a continuing development cycle, that has shown that customer feedback, technological advances and hardware flaw identification make design changes in new revisions. Not just a competitors fickle attempt at duplicating a market.
Dell's philosophy to market research is seeing what other people are doing that makes money and photocopying it. So as proven by history, they'll have whatever new toys other companies have.. just 2 years later, and in some cheap metallic or blue plastic
The final problem is that I'd have to actually use a Dell DJ, ever used one? It's a nuclear winter of discontentment.
Finally since I've had my iPod for several years now fault free I don't see any reason to give it up. (10GB model..) I was even using it on my old PC with XPod software for windows. I've personally had no battery issues with mine. Out of 3 Million iPods sold, a very small % happen to have the dreaded battery issue, hardly a reason to jump ship to a product still in it's first (and probably last) cycle.
Re:Brilliant by gordgekko · 2004-07-01 08:46 · Score: 2, Insightful

> being the first to market,

I love the Jobs Reality Distortion Field...now he can go back in time to create the first hard drive MP3 player. Forget about the others that came before!

--
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
reminds me of Cartman by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-01 09:38 · Score: 1, Insightful

Dell's problem is that they only know about offering crap for less money on a product you're required to have to do your job. They don't know anything about personal accessories.

This whole thing reminds me of a Cartman moment. The boys are playing "Lord of the Rings" and pass by some similar-looking kids, who admit that they're playing "Harry Potter," whereupon Cartman emits the most cruel and derisive laugh.

Kids are willing to pay extra to NOT get beaten up for having the Dell lunchbox! See?
Dell setting themselves up for a nightmare by gwoodrow · 2004-07-01 12:03 · Score: 2, Insightful

I'd hate to work at Dell's customer service/call center when thousands of angry people start contacting them because they have thousands of songs they bought on iTunes that just don't seem to work on Dell's jukebox.
Re:hmm by gr33nlantern · 2004-07-01 15:42 · Score: 2, Insightful
So let me see.

Assume I have a dead 1st generation iPod that is completely useless to me.
- I turn this iPod Into Dell for a 100 dollar rebate, and spend 99 dollars on a Dell DJ.
- I sell my Dell DJ on Ebay for 200 dollars. (I am now ahead of myself 100 dollars).
- I muster up another 100 dollars and buy a 15gb Ipod.
So, dell is making it possible for me to turn my dead 1st generation iPod into a brand new 3rd generation 15gb for just 200 dollars?! oh THANK you dell. ^^.

In All seriousness, I think dell would be better off spending their money making the Dell DJ a more desirable product. This would probably proove to be more ethical, rather than offering good money for their lead competitor's product, No?