Dude, you’re getting some money as you expected! Well, that’s not exactly what the slogan was, and I’m probably dating myself a little here, but I can very well remember the television and print ads that ran in the early part of the new millennium advertising the Dell computer. It was a huge success for the company that was selling PCs at a slightly higher price point from their competition. People flocked to the brand because they were known for their quality, and now with their marketing campaign they were cool, something only Apple had enjoyed.
Fast forward 10 – 12 years and it’s all about mobility. Apple is king in the market of mobility with the iPad, and Amazon in second place with the Kindle, Samsung rounding out the top 3. Dell has been trying to play catch up for quite some time. PC makers have been seeing their sales dropping in the consumer market and now in the corporate market. In an effort to be more competitive Dell has been trying to make their PCs and laptops cheaper to compete with HP and Lenovo. HP holds the top spot for the laptop market right now, but everyone knows that mobile computing is where it’s at. Tablets may replace a conventional laptop for some users, and I’ll tell you, the ones to watch are the convertibles with the detachable screen and the pens. These are laptops that convert to tablets and then back to laptops by detaching the screen. The ones that have the initiative pen are the ones to really watch because the pen acts like a mouse. You can write on the screen, drag and drop, and even click with the touch of the pen. Dell actually has some very nice offerings in this area coming out soon. All of the new convertibles and tablets that look really useful are running Windows 8. So, what’s the problem? Well, Dell needs time to market the new devices and to get them to market, what’s a PC maker to do?
Along comes Microsoft like a knight in shining armor. Because the new devices being offered by Dell (XPS 10 and XPS 12) are running Windows 8, Microsoft has a real vested interest in making sure that Dell does well and that the company is successful. Now, we’ve talked about the Microsoft Surface here, and yes, that would be competition for Microsoft, but they’re much more concerned that Windows 8 does well than they are about some healthy competition from Dell. So, the Microsoft rumor mill is turning and there are report that the software giant could be pumping as much as $3 billion into Dell to ensure that it succeeds. We’ll have to wait and see if Dell can play catch-up in the mobile market.
Ironically, when I was thinking of the title for this article, the “dude you’re getting a Dell” commercials from the 2000 – 2003 years were the first thing I thought of. The irony came in when I was writing the post, on the news there was an announcement that Ben Curtis, who played the iconic “Dell Dude” in those commercials has actually asked Dell to bring him back to promote the new products. Some of you may remember that the reason that Dell dropped the “dude” was because he was arrested for attempting to purchase marijuana in New York. Well, it’s been a long time since then and Dell isn’t what it once was. Come to think of it, neither is marijuana, Massachusetts has recently legalized the medicinal use of it, and Colorado has legalized all uses of the drug. I’m sure some marketing genius is already hard at work fitting all of that together.Godgiftpriye@gmail.com
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