Dell, It’s Time To Reinvent Yourself
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Far be it for me to say that I know more about PC marketing than the great Michael Dell, but obviously something had better change and it had better change fast. Because whether Dell cares to admit it or not, Apple is obviously offering something that Dell is not. Therefore, may I be so bold as to point out the following:
Sell an experience and product usability, not a “PC.”
Thanks to the Apple commercials, regardless of the truth to them or not, PCs are simply not as sought after as they once were. Apple has managed to clearly show its potential customers exactly why they should want a Mac and what they can then do with it once it’s been purchased.
What has Dell been able to show its customers?
“Here are the latest specs. Sure, most of you have no idea why you would need this information. But it’s faster, although we cannot clearly communicate why this matters to you, the end user. Still, come and buy it!”
The above approach is where Dell’s current ads and mailings are today. I personally feel that too much emphasis has been placed on the power user, while the bulk of its target market is not seeing any reason to bother upgrading to another Dell machine.
Dell needs to better communicate, through traditional media, why potential users should care. I realize this is hard to do as it does not have any control over the bugs and benefits of the new Windows OS. However, it needs to be looking into bundling freeware or Open Source applications in order to begin the slow process of undoing the damage of unwanted trialware and lackluster support from people who clearly have no idea what they are talking about.
It’s Like Microsoft Vista launch ads all over again.
When I first discovered the new Dell TV ad, I almost cried out of pity for the soon-to-be unemployed person who came up with it. So lame in fact, I cannot find it anywhere else except on the Dell site - not so with Apple commercials. Dell’s piece was trying to attract the same age crowd.
Go to this link and look at this new TV ad. It’s off-topic and it takes an entire minute of women prancing around like fools to get the point made! Now to be clear, it would have been a cool commercial for the Gap or even Best Buy. But this commercial only shares one benefit of the notebook with me - it’s flat and small. Wow, where do I rush out to buy one of these flat and small notebooks? Oh yeah, at the Apple store…
Subtly insinuating that dropping a rather attractive engine into the notebook makes this computer fast still provides little sustaining value for the gamers it is trying to attract.
Crisis with an OS it has no control over.
Dell’s Linux efforts have been, at best, grassroots. Dell has strong feelings that it’s simply best to keep the target market at the migrating power user and this is a strong argument, be it one I still do not agree with should the right support be in place.
Regardless, Windows Vista has proven to be a disaster for Dell - that’s a simple fact. Despite the fact that Vista does, indeed, have way better security features than that of its XP cousin, people have simply grown tired of Vista’s growing pains.
Apple is handing Dell’s butt back to it in a bag because Apple has real control over the quality of the OS used on its products, pure and simple. OS X is a solid product. Even if I do not care for the UI myself, I have been recommending it over Vista left and right.
Short of the questionable use of restricted media formats on Ubuntu, if Dell provided peripherals for the end user using components that do work with Linux itself, there would absolutely no excuse not to take this to the mass user market - none. For the casual family, with the understanding that this is not Windows, which means that DRM goods are not happening here, Dell could finally recreate itself into something unique.
At this stage in the game, I am not going to say that it should try going exclusively Open Source. After all, it would lose millions, despite sagging sales figures. It’s a Windows world and there is nothing wrong with supporting that OS so long as customers are willing to purchase these goods from you. That said, things are coming to a head where Dell is going to have to rethink everything about itself - it’s already starting to happen. HP, among others, have them stomped thanks to the big box stores, as PC brand loyalty has little meaning to the average consumer.
It’s about immediate availability without shipping, offering a good price and providing the temptation to buy. If Dell hopes to have a snowball’s chance of future success, it will be embracing Ubuntu and developing better driver support for its products set to run on the distro as it will have no choice.
Vista has been a laughing fit for Windows, Linux, and OS X users alike. The entire release should have been a security-based Service Pack for XP as I have used it and can honestly say I do not see any appeal there whatsoever. I have heard some good things about Windows 7. Then again, that is assuming the word ‘bloat’ is finally being left at the door, real applications are bundled with it, and a clear vision of ‘why we want this’ has been given to us.
Windows XP was a success as it had the best from Win 2K and Windows 98SE. It rose from the ashes of Windows Me and with hope for Dell, Windows 7 had better do the same. Because thus far, Vista is not doing Dell or any other PC manufacturer any favors.
Oh, and to the folks who will (and it’s going to happen) point to Microsoft’s fantastic sales numbers, I would remind you that once you open that glossy looking Vista box from a retailer, you cannot return it. Fantastic sales, my eye! Try a monopoly bundled onto the distribution of most computers.
[tags]Windows, dell, PCs[/tags]
11 Comments
marc klink
August 21st, 2007
at 7:32pm
Does the average user matter to Dell? Only slightly, I believe. Dell has always eagerly courted business, and the bulk of their sales are from that sector. The advertisements to ‘regular people’ are merely another point of entry for business sales, as someone who uses brand ??? will see the commercials, and consider Dell when he gets to work.
I absolutely agree with your other assertions, and yes, Vista is a nuisance for most.
I am not sure why Dell, as large as it is, has never gotten a few simple applications together, or some small, but very useful utilities, and made it available to Dell customers exclusively. For example, a customisation package - to make XP look like Vista, with none of the drawbacks - could be whipped up in no time, and would be a very nice added value for Dell customers.
john rambo
August 22nd, 2007
at 5:17am
What’s Apple’s share of the market? That low! Yes, I thought so.
Bob Wyatt
August 22nd, 2007
at 7:32am
Matt, you’re way out there… I don’t know where ‘there’ is, but it’s far, far away. Vista security essentially exists in Vista Ultimate (per readings of ZD-Net/C-Net blogs); each version of Vista touts enhanced security, but as far as I have read, Ultimate is the only one that delivers it in an effective form.
Dell wouldn’t be the only vendor singing the ‘Vista Blues’; any vendor that significantly relies solely upon the Microsucks Winblows Operating Environment (I hesitate to call it an Operating System, merely because so much has been bundled into it, and it still has way too-frequent user service interruptions) is aboard the same boat.
Ubuntu is not “all that”, either. In my limited experience with it, it has network sharing issues with Windows 2000 Server systems, which happens to drive my (now old) color laser printer. It installed easily; it still required some tedious work to get my devices accessible. Overall, though, I was up and running in about 4 hours; the same clean load of XP (non-XP2 CD) takes 6 to 8 hours on the same system.
Van
August 22nd, 2007
at 7:33am
While they don’t say it in the ads, Dell is focused on the enterprise, not the consumer. In the enterprise space, Apple needs to find a way to get major software solutions (i.e. CAD, Accounting, BI, and CRM) to port to the OS X platform so that they can be run in a native environment. Dell continues to enjoy wild success in the enterprise not because they’re a better solution, but because they’re cost effective and the major software pieces used by Fortune 500 companies can be deployed effeciently on them.
Matt Hartley
August 22nd, 2007
at 9:48am
Everyone: Good feedback, keep it coming and thanks for making clear, concise points. So much better than angry feedback, always appreciated. ;)
shausha
August 22nd, 2007
at 11:55am
I’ve been in IT for as long as Dell has been around and it never ceases to amaze me that so many folks openly sing their praises.
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who distrusts them though. As to Dell being aimed at teh Corporate or Business market - that is correct. However as part of a college course I had to do a media makeover on any international company I cared to. I opted to go with the one I disliked so much and picked Dell. As part of my research I came across a lot of facts that surprised me and the big one that’s relevant here is that Dell are seriously struggling in the business market and without double checking, the figures were something like home sales make up 40% of their sales.
The other 60% is not all business though.
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 4:37pm
well I just bought a new Dell and was online as soon as it was unpacked..with 4 GB of ram it was very fast….my only Vista hassle is that it won’t let me install the old drivers for my Maxtor external hard drive and the windows drivers keep powering it down all the time..and Seagate won’t get off their lazy ass to write a driver for older Maxtor products - no money in it for them I guess….I dl’d the new Freespire, Ubuntu and Zenwalk cds and booted from all - NONE could find the network and Ubuntu couldn’t even detect a network card..( I have a direct cable connection) Ubuntu couldn’t see ANY ntfs files or even the C:\ partition…Freespire at least saw that…NONE of these OS’s ( incl OSX) are bug free ( remember the first OSX release wiping external hard drives…no? - geez short memories…) work with what works for you and quit whining and saying X is better than Y….all od them will cripple something you want - it’s called business…
Matt Hartley
August 23rd, 2007
at 5:07pm
kiko: Ouch! For Ubuntu to not only be able be blind to a typical NIC and it could not even find NTFS partitions in auto-mount is highly weird, unless Dell used some really strange hardware config.
Now, it is not going to auto-mount the NTFS from a Live CD, as it was never designed to. But the NIC thing has me highly shocked. I have Linux not see a lot of things in my life, but I have NEVER seen a single Ethernet based NIC not work in a modern distro - even from LiveCD.
On the off chance it did not kick on by itself, which is unheard of for hardwired options, did you look in the network settings? Unless Network Manager is doing strange things on you, I just cannot see this happen in both Freespire and Ubuntu, it just doesn’t juve - and I use a LOT of distributions.
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 6:30pm
yeah - I went to the network management - and it said ” this network is not yet configured”- so click on properties and as soon as I click on “auto -detect” the option to click OK becomes grayed out -in fact ANYTHING I try to set in there makes the “OK” button grayed out - so it will not accept the setting - and no strange hardware config here….so banal even windows could find it…lol…I had high hopes that Ubuntu ( or other flavors) would run like lightning on this but no deal..it did find the ntfs partitions on my external drive - so well it listed one partiton twice as separate partitons…..but still no c drive…I had an old Dell laptop and Freespire ran great on that- everything detected..Ubuntu was so-so…and Mint was just ok…but all ran and got me online with live CD…not a single one of those old cd’s - or newest versions can get me online- unless linux is having core 2 duo issues..I dunno…and that is what I was counting on -I could live with weird things here and there but to not auto detect internet connection…well that makes it pretty useless to me…so will wait and try later….when this hardware is old maybe linux will run great…lol
kiko
August 23rd, 2007
at 6:38pm
forgot to add - if linux is to have a hope in hell of replacing ANY os- this kind of stuff has to be no brainer- plug and go….this is where Mac and Windows HAVE made the cut - they DO get you online without ANY digging around in properties of network connections…at least for a straight up direct connection…nobody need this headache - least of all grannies who are “getting on all the tubes of the internet”…;-)…
Ted Sbardella
August 28th, 2007
at 6:12am
This is right on Cris. My nieghbor was just telling me about his new Dell and how he would not get “that vista crap” he go xp on it. Every time I am about to make the leap and put Vista back on my work laptop I get some new story that makes me stop. Also we have some friends who need a new PC and I flatly told her that she should look into a Mac because it would be a better investment she would have the same learning curve as with Vista and get a better more useful product out of the box.
BTW I think that XP may be going pseudo open source whether MS wants it or not. There are so many really well made loads of XP out there that I am Thinking of making that my re-load next time even though I have the legitimate XP licence for my system. There is a light version that is less than 200 megs and you can get ones that have all the patches up to latest that include lots of pre-loaded open software… and they are checked clean by the sites that host them. MS should work with that system. Who wants to spend an hours updating windows every time you load a new computer. I have wim files for that purpose but still it would save time for people out there who hate vista on on their new dell and want to be able to use windows.