Dell Also Is Trying To Be The Apple Of The PC World
from the welcome-to-the-club dept
First they drop the “Computers” from their name, and then they show that they really mean it… There have been plenty of companies recently looking to become the “Apple of the PC world” (which I know is not an accurate label, but the press loves it) by branching out into consumer electronics as well as computers. Sony was (and, really, still is) the most obvious candidate for doing so – but so far have been unable to really capture public attention with any combined offerings tying their PCs to their computers. Gateway made a big splash selling plasma TVs and talking about how they were becoming a consumer electronics company – but it’s unclear if they still have the ability to really catch on in that market. Now, it’s Dell’s turn. They’re expected to detail some of their latest plans to push beyond the computer space by offering their own iPod-like digital music player, as well as an LCD TV. Historically, Dell has always been very strong at making their process so efficient that they can sell their product at a cheaper price than competitors. It will be interesting to see if Dell’s entrance into the market puts a lot of pricing pressure on the other players.
Comments on “Dell Also Is Trying To Be The Apple Of The PC World”
Dell LCD TV
I can verify the LCD TV – they are going to all the main LCD suppliers and getting quotes for the components. This doesn’t really make sense to me since they are buying parts from the guys who also make LCD TVs, assembling them and putting their own name on it, so they will be no different from the LCD TVs that come from any of the major Japanese, Korean and soon Chinese brands, but I guess they do that today with notebooks.
Like previously discussed, Dell is not a technology innovator, they are a operations, logistics and sales channel company. In this case however, the sales channel of selling a PC over the internet is fairly well established since a majority of buyers don’t need to see/touch before the buy. TVs today are largely sold at “big box” retailers and specialty electronic shops where people can see the TV, as well as all the other fun things they can put around it (DVD, Tivo, stereo, whatever).
I don’t claim to be a sage, but I don’t see Dell making a lot of headway with just TVs, but they got a lot of smart people there, so I will just wait to see how they market this.