Comments on: Dell’s iPhone Killer rejected by carriers as too dull

By: Stock Trading News » Blog Archive » Dell’s iPhone Killer rejected by carriers as too dull

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:11:23 +0000

[...] Prince McLean, AppleInsider After signaling its intent to follow Apple’s wildly successful iPhone into the smartphone business, Dell’s first attempts to produce a phone have been rejected by the carriers for being too dull and lacking enough differentiation to stand out in a competitive environment, according to a report. A research note published today by Kaufman Bros. [...] Go to Source [...]

By: daGUY

daGUY — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:58:48 +0000

Colligan thought Apple wouldn’t be able to “just walk in” because he saw them as “PC guys” with no relation to anything in the cellphone business. He was wrong because Apple in fact had tons of relevant experience – building desirable hardware with easy-to-use, integrated software is their specialty. They just hadn’t applied it to a phone yet.

Dell, though, has none of those things. Their hardware, although a little jazzier than it used to be, is still bland, cheap, and unexciting. They have no experience with software UI design or anything like that. What they’re good at is selling commodity products in high volume for thin margins, which is good for precisely nothing if you’re trying to create an “iPhone killer.”

So it comes as no surprise to me that their phone was deemed “too dull” – would could they have possibly brought to the table that would have made it more exciting than the iPhone, or even put it within range?

Colligan was right about the “PC guys,” he just got the wrong company!

By: David Hupp

David Hupp — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:03:31 +0000

Or Dell could just buy HTC. But that would be too obvious. It be _such_ a better fit for Dell to buy Palm, a company that has nothing in common with Dell and actually has non-Microsoft tech cred.

By: gus2000

gus2000 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:22:15 +0000

I used to work for a high-tech company (starts with a “D” and rhymes with “hell”) and saw plenty of forward-looking designs in portables and software. Unfortunately the slickest stuff was mothballed, since the higher-end market was really not in their culture. It was low-margin high-volume sales, or bust.

By: danpoarch

danpoarch — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:08:03 +0000

Oh, this just kills me. I mean, I hate to make light of someone else’s failure but it brings to mind a ten-year-old quote [quote from a ten-year-old?]. “If I ran [Dell], I’d liquidate the company and give the money back to the shareholders…”

By: qka

qka — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:59:26 +0000

Palm + Dell = Pall?

(If you don’t understand, look it up.)