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Dell Gives Android the Boot, Boots Up More Windows 8
hugheseyau writes "Dell vice chairman Jeff Clarke made a less than shocking announcement at this year's Dell World Conference in Austin. The company is officially giving up on Android phones and tablets. ... So if Dell is giving up on Android, what comes next? The company claims it's doubling down on Windows 8, and the enterprise market."
Uhh.. the reason those features don't exist is to clearly push those kinds of customers towards Windows 8 Pro. It's the same reason why Office RT doesn't have Outlook. Microsoft doesn't want Windows RT to be used in enterprise and there are plenty of clues as to why not.
It's all going BYOD. As much as I hate it, its all going BYOD. Bad move, Dell.
Even RIM, which is based on the enterprise, is changing.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
Last time I checked, gambling behavior as a primary hobby or profession wasn't considered respectable or responsible, it was considered borderline sociopathic.
If I were a stockholder I'd be worried. Technology these days seems to be about a combination of giving people what they want and convincing people of what they want. Android, to an extent, is giving people what they want, as Android is popular with users as well as with OEMs. Windows 8, by and large, does not appear to be popular, either in portable devices or on the desktop.
So, Dell is now moving to a system of neither giving people what they want, nor convincing people of what they want.
I don't think that Dell is in any danger of going Chapter 7. Where I work buys Dell just about exclusively, in a 30,000 desktop environment. The paltry sales Apple or other OEMs get is almost not worth mentioning. But, their extra markets, like phones, tablets, and other consumer devices will probably die.
I had actually wanted a Dell phone back in the day, but they weren't compatible with my cell provider. Otherwise they had the features I wanted. Pity that...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
As the only Dell Streak 7 Android developer left, it doesn't surprise me that Dell has abandoned Android. I've spent over a year trying to get them to comply with the GPL and give me the last source code for their last kernel update. Every request I have put forth has been turned down or rejected. I still try my best to keep this tablet up to date with ICS and JB, but I can only do so much without more support.
Windows 8 and Server 2012 are far from "enterprise" they are basically toys.
Agreed. It seems the purpose of Windows 8 is to provide a consumer-oriented environment conducive to buying content such as music, movies, books, etc like on the iPad and other tablets and smartphones. To date, the only things I've seen people doing with Windows 8 systems in commercials is playing movies, games, finger painting, Skype, "clicking, clicking, clicking," sliding and (often angry) dancing. No one's using the thing for any actual work...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Their business support doesn't suck though. If you're an enterprise-level customer and have your IT staff certified through Dell's online coursework then you can do all of your warranty work in-house and they generally next-day parts to you, and they really don't make a big deal of misdiagnosed machines where you end up replacing perfectly good parts. We use mostly Optiplexes and Latitudes and keeping up with about 30,000 PCs has been possible with a paltry staff.
Personally I'm typing this on a several-year-old Lenovo Ideapad S10-2, my wife uses a Thinkpad X301, and Dad bought an Ideapad G550 based on our recommendations, so I like old-IBM/Lenovo fairly well, but I don't think that Dell is quite as bad overall as you've dealt with. I'm using an old Latitude D520 at work in the field without problems, and my Optiplex 780 workstation has handled its duties without problems.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Touchscreen-enabled Chromebooks could change all that in 2013 though.
If that were true they would be making Android devices as fast as they can. Android devices are outselling Windows devices 2:1. Dell's not making ANY profit on Windows devices, so they might as well give Android devices a go. But they don't, which implies that Microsoft has got them by the short curlies.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Well, their XPS 12 looks like a decent enough device. Who knows, maybe they can actually make good things that aren't really tablets (but rather convertible notebooks etc)?
We run operating systems for one reason: application delivery. Windows is where the industry specific applications are, so that is what the client machines run.
To administer the clients, it is a lot easier to do so with Windows servers.
Do i run windows servers facing the internet? Fuck no. They are well protected by hardware firewalls, mail, etc. comes through FreeBSD. But Windows has its uses.
I'm a big fan of heterogeneous networks. Use the most appropriate platform for the service you are attempting to deliver. Any mainstream OS these days can be secured "well enough" with minimal effort if you know shit from clay.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.