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Dell's Smartphone Rejected — Too Dull
MBCook writes "AppleInsider has an article discussing Dell's attempt to enter the smartphone market, as well as the news that the phone was rejected by carriers as too dull. The article doesn't pull punches: 'Dell's failure to successfully step from the commodity PC business into the mobile handset market should come as no surprise, as smartphones requires expertise in software platform development, consumer design savvy, and portable device engineering, all things Dell has never demonstrated any proficiency in.'"
More interesting than a boring Dell phone, was a note near the end that Acer had a smrtphone out - one of them is the DX900, a Windows Mobile phone.
Sorry about the voice...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I mean, given they pay him "consulting fees" I wouldn't doubt it. But maybe a contrarian viewpoint to Enderle... just take everything that he says as the "wrong" view and you'll do well.
"Logu?" "Lugo?" "Lugu?" I don't get it.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Didn't you hear that Dell changed their name to Doll?
It's just like SciFi becoming Syfy except not quite as retarded.
You can't take the sky from me.
Bring on the G2 (or whatever it will be called for Sprint and Verizon) in April. I'm also curious how Nokia will respond now that they own Qt, and they've got working fully functional KDE 4 desktops on their n810 tablets.
Bring on the OLED screens that are thinner, use less battery, and have much higher resolution.
Smartphones are going to explode in the next two years. People said you didn't "need" a camera in your phone, or GPS, and they're becoming commonplace. Most people don't "need" a smartphone, but everyone will have one, and we'll find new uses for them.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Screw the carriers. Just release the phone worldwide as an unlocked GSM phone.
Uh, does anyone else find it a bit suspect that this is from a site called Apple Insider? For me that completely ruins the credibility of this story. I mean, any smartphone is miles less dull than the generic clamshells and candybars that the telcos keep pushing.
All your base are belong to Wii.
I guess I don't really understand the economics behind handsets. I've always bought my own and never through the service provider. Thanks to AT&Ts following the GSM standard, I just put my SIM chip in whatever phone I want and I'm good to go.
What is the likelyhood that some manufacturer comes out with some compelling device and sell it directly to the consumers? The consumers use it in spite of the desires of the network operators.
Have gnu, will travel.
Dell missed its opportunity when it unceremoniously dumped its PDA line, after having one of the best with the x50v they pulled away to focus on MP3 players that no one wanted delivering millions of what were nearly fanatical users straight into the hands of what would now be their competition.
They should be shooting for volume sales of a hot platform, like their current PC strategy is now.
Instead of trying to build a gee-whiz unique product, they should be building a phone that's cheaper than an HTC G1, runs Android and is available to a variety of networks. Dull, sure, but at a pricepoint beating the G1, it doesn't have to be a flashy offering, just usable and capture the enthusiasm of the G1 fanbase and potential market. 3G, Bluetooth, Web and Android apps.
What else would they need?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Given the phones that have not made it to the US market, and the fact that the iPhone has to bypass the carriers all together, I do not trust their judgement on how interesting a phone might be. OTOH, given that it is a Dell, and does run an MS OS, I would assume that it was just another phone, perhaps full of gee whiz features, but not worth stocking over any other mobile device.
Perhaps they should approach Cricket or Boost Mobile. I don't think either of those has a smart phone, and Dell can likely make it cheap enough, as MS probably has some motivation to get into this extremely low level market sector.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Dude you're getting a Dull!
Dell seems to be trying to be Apple with their smart phones and their bizarre new aluminum netbook. Commodity equipement makes only innovate in reducing their production costs not in product development/design.
Dell is in a tight spot being squeezed by Apple at the high end and other commodity PC manufacturer at the low end.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
I've always said a "smartphone" will never cut the mustard for me. I don't care how many PDA-like features it has, the PDA features will always be inferior to a real PDA. What I want is a PDA with phone features like voice and text. A netbook with a voip service would sum up the functionality I want, though I'd want it in a smaller form factor.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Yeah, but seriously. Who cares?
Back to the story. Dell (as in Micheal Dell) needs to walk down to the corner where they are working on Mobile phones, bitchslap everyone for a little while then remind them what Dell's main asset is.
People like to buy stuff from them. If Dell started to sell and support Apple PCs as just another product line, sales of Apple PCs would climb.
This is no accident:
#1. In some places, (Jamaica) Dell provides onsite support and a warehouse of spare parts that's already cleared customs and can thus be delivered in compliance with the Next business day or even the 4 hour response Warranties.
#2. Dell still has the best designed site for customizing and buying Computer hardware.
In simple terms Dell doesn't need it's own products. It just needs decent quality stuff with the Dell brand on it. Let someone else design and build the Dell phone. Ignore the carriers (except for making sure the phone is compatible) and start selling unlocked Dell phones for whatever they cost to make and deliver plus a markup.
Once the carriers see the numbers delivered whoever has the fewest on it's network will go to Dell on bended knee to get a bundling deal.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
If you want your normal cellphone, by all means, buy it. You see, they make different phones for different people with different needs. They make tons of phones for people just like you! No one is stopping you.
Now, I'll go back to my smartphone that suits my purposes much better. After all, I bought it, I have the right to get what I want out of my phone. Why is this always such a problem around here? And worse, who mods these people up for people having choices?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Oh yeah? Does YOUR cell phone have time travel capabilities?
I thought not.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Every phone I've bought has been dull. They tend to have rounded corners, because otherwise you'd be cutting your face on the sharp edges. That's why I never bought a Razr.
... and then they built the supercollider.
People like to buy stuff from them. If Dell started to sell and support Apple PCs as just another product line, sales of Apple PCs would climb.
Maybe from the added "credibility" of being associated with Dell, but not because of how much gee whiz fun it is to buy from Dell's online store. Have you ever tried getting a straight price from them? You get different options and pricing depending on whether you go in via home or office or corporate or data center or whatever bullshit classification scheme they decide for you, then it's uselessly bare until you add to it, and then maybe there's a sale that day and maybe not, or maybe a "deal" and why the hell can't they just give you a straight price?
Try buying something from store.apple.com and compare the experience.
Some might argue that Dell is a better value because you're not paying the "Apple tax' for the user experience. That's true so long as you believe that the user experience is worthless.
Except that there is a thing that allows you to pick upgrade options for each part, all on one page.
Granted, there's no flat increase, and I'll cede that point, but when ordering a box, switch it to list view from that annoying as sin icon view. It'll put all the parts stuff on one tab, accessories that you're probably going to skip on another, additional services like special warranty modifications (keep your hard drive, etc) on another tab, and the last tab builds what you've chosen.
(and yes, nothing is nicer than a keep your hard drive warranty. not sending a dead hard drive in to the man is awesome.)
One of these days, I am going to flip out. When I flip out, I'll be back in five minutes.
Butbutbutbut, why didn't they just add cellular capabilities to the a-daaaah-mo, then? :)
It'd make it the ultimate little black book, then.
One of these days, I am going to flip out. When I flip out, I'll be back in five minutes.
Was build-to-order and fast delivery. They grew like crazy by being aggressive cost-cutters, and when they cut the costs to the point where their low quality started to get on their customers' nerves, their decline was a foregone conclusion.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Ever since I've been forced to use Blackberry 8300, I long for a regular, dull phone. One where I don't have to put magnifying glasses on to know what the heck I am doing. One where I can easily do what I need without having to go through layers upon layers of incomprehensible menus.
If not for the fact that I have to use it, and that the company is paying the bill (that is the only good aspect of it), I would use it for target practice and go back to my old, dull, basic clamshell Motorola, where I could do everything with one hand without even looking at it.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
I do as the grandparent poster, bringing my own phone with T-Mobile USA, but I use a pre-paid SIM that cost me about $8 to start the account and about $16/month in usage fees.
I agree, if you are a heavy user and have no intention to switch carriers or reduce usage during the contract period, a well chosen contract with a "free" phone may be cost effective. But I crunched the numbers when I was in such a situation, and found that after a year or so I was wasting money because I had signed on to the 1000 minute/month plan and using the phone gratuitously since "the minutes were already purchased".
I migrated to cheaper plans with a non-subsidized phone, and eventually to pre-paid. My lifestyle changed to adapt to the new cost structure, and I make better use of my office phone, coffee and beer meetings, and email or IM to replace many of the useless mobile phone calls. Now the mobile is just used to synchronize real life events, rather than to replace them, and I am happier all around.
It seems more likely that Dell decided there was not a lot of money to be made in pda's (they have always been a niche market)
Not true, in the golden age of the Palm they were not a niche at all. Tons of people had Palm devices, well outside of any niche...
A true PDA is for sure a niche now, because so much of the usefulness was taken away by cellphones. Dell didn't get in early enough to that party, even though you could see it coming a long way away (Palm did, they just took the wrong actions).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yet they have better service than the United States.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"