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Dell to Get Into Cell Phones in 2006
prostoalex writes "BrightHand looks into the future of Dell Axim PDA line. X30 will be discontinued, X50 will get another update of Windows Mobile, and pretty soon Dell might be entering the cell phone business with PDA+phone Axim combo. The phone line will replaces the X50 model in mid-2006."
Although this seems like a mistake, Dell may actually be able to encourage the market on cheaper smart phones. The article, if you read, went into absolutely no detail about the phone but one can assume it is a smartphone. With competitive forces like Dell (which seems to be all dell is good at as of late) Treo and Blackberry are going to have a run for their money. I am all for more choices and better competition in this market, but to whom will they offer their services will be the next question. Will it be a brand specific deal, or will they provide to the masses and make it available to all major carriers?
-- johntracy.com, because everybody else is wrong.
While that might seem a good thing, remember that the commoditization of the PC industry essentially sucked the innovation from it.
Cheers to that statement! I believe it is because the obvious competetive advantage in any market is price. You can always try to sell the same thing as your neighbor for $1 less and try to gain market share. Thinking differently and actually innovating is risky because if people don't like your innovation, you wasted R&D and manufacturing on a product you have to discount to sell. So the safe thing is to cut into your margins or try to gain operational efficiencies and economies of scale to offer lower prices a la Dell and Walmart.
PCs have gotten faster, but for the most part, there hasn't been a surprise, a new way of doing things, in PCs and in personal computing, since the early nineties.
I am not so certain this is try. Check out what the last ten years have brought us:
- common usage of PDAs/Treos/Blackberries
- alternative 'entertainment' usage for PCs as the home music/video server
I do believe that the market is stagnating because it is presided over by large vendors (Dell/HP/IBM/Toshiba) who don't innovate, they duplicate while improving efficiencies to lower cost. In both of the markets above (just like HP has the iPaq) I think we will see more of the big vendors getting into things. Don't believe me, just Google for how many people are loving the Mac mini in their entertainment center at home and Apple doesn't even have a movie store yet!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
So far, my current P910 thinks that closing the flip means I'm done, doesn't syncronise with Outlook properly (all my mobile numbers are labelled as work), runs dog slow, can't call up numbers quickly to dial them, the keyboard doesn't suggest words, no quick way to enter a capital letter (no swipe-up movement like with Microsoft), inconsistent GUI including a complete failure to sort my applications by anything resembling alphabetically.
Sure, the PocketPC phone editions have their issues too (random bugs requiring a restart, pitiful Outlook support, poor ActiveSync which often has problems syncing an appointment for an "unspecified error") but with Microsoft snapping a the heels, hopefully the quality bar will increase.
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I switched on a business show on Fox News just deal with it, OK? They have decent business shows.) over the weekend, and the announcer, in his "what's coming up next" blurb, excitedly said, "you'll be able to watch television on your cell phone soon!" And all I can think about is how intercell handoffs still vastly suck even here in 2005 A.D, half my cell calls sound like they are from a deep sea submersible and how there's still dead zones even in metropolitan Los Angeles.
Why am I supposed to be excited about this? Where's the truly NEW stuff? Say what you will about Tivo, but that was a device that fundamentally changed the way I do things in terms of entertainment. I actually watch less TV more efficiently because of it. I want things that make my life easier, not flashy gadgets that are created simply for the gee-whiz factor.
Maybe I've seen too much. Maybe it's because I design stuff so far beyond things like this that I'm difficult to impress. I dunno... just getting old and pragmatic, perhaps.
The biggest use of a pda is to keep track of appointments, take notes, and hold contact information - all of which my nokia 6230 can do NOW! PDAs are dying.
If you noticed they said it would be geared towards business clients. In the world of POS (that's point of sale, not Chevy) the PDA has the ability to replace cash registers. I would bet the new Axim/cell phone thing will have a built in digital camera and optional bar code readers. A cashier with a camera can speed up the RMA process and document abused merchandise. A warehouse employee could use all those things. Imagine a receiving clerk in Chicago receiving faulty merchandise and using his Symbol PDA/scanner to take a picture and e-mail it to his manager in Az to get a decision on receive or refuse. Huge benefit. The PDA is not dying, it is adapting.
PDA is better than paper because::
You can back it up to your PC or memory card
It can play music, video, video games (though you can put paper games into a Paper device. I like sudoku myself)
Easier to read when it is dark.
It can store a lot of info in a small space - you can load a memory card with a hundred e-books if you want.
You can get connectivity for it and use it to surf the web (poorly), check your e-mail, ssh to your box, etc.
Syncronises with your PC's PIM.
It can sound alarms.
Paper is better than PDA because
Very cheap.
Wider rage of form-factors. (Compare a pad of small post-its, a hipster PDA (which is a dozen index cards and a bulldog clip, for those not familiar with it), a moleskine notebook, a A4 ring-bound pad, a filofax, a big portfolio, etc. etc.)
Survives water, drops etc. better
Never runs out of batteries
Parts easier to obtain
Easier to read in bright sunlight.
Much easier to personalise (e.g. by printing your own inserts that match your exact needs)
You can tear pages out and give them to people, stick them on the wall, etc.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Nothing strange in that. Commoditization is normal in anything that ceases to be high tech, bleeding edge. IT & computers aren't bleeding edge anymore. Period.
And this is not totally bad and doesn't mean there is no innovation. Let's take cars as a very good example of the same trends. Yes, cars ceased to be innovative some 80 years ago - every major component of a car was invented before the II World War begun including automatic transmissions and car radios. But no one could argue that there is no improvement between a car of today and car from late thirties, even despite the fact that basically well... they do the same thing. And probably someone from the period could easily adapt to driving the modern version (as controls for example didn't change at all).
The plus side to this is that, environmental concerns aside, everyone now can have a car and all the freedom of movement and ease of moving stuff it gives.
Same with computers. Yes, all PCs do more or less the same thing. Yes, they are ugly, run Windows but are cheap. But everyone can afford them. It's great!
And if you demand something different and on a higher level there is still Porsche and Apple.