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back to article Dell to take on iPad with ton of tablets

Dell will roll out its 7in tablet "within in the next few weeks" - along with a 3in version - but there will be a longer wait for the 10in version, a company exec has revealed. Said official is Dell Greater China President Amit Midha, in an interview by the Wall Street Journal. Midha said the 10in Streak won't arrive for a …

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  1. Alex Walsh

    typo

    " Dell is taking a scatter gun approach to mobile internet devices: offer lots of different screen sizes and a variety of operating systems to ensure as few potential buyers get left out as possible"

    Should surely read:

    "Dell is taking a scatter gun approach to mobile internet devices: offer lots of different screen sizes and a variety of operating systems to ensure as few potential buyers as possible"

    The aggro updating the streak firmware, multiplied across multiple platforms? Surely a turn off of Archos proportions.

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    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
      Reply Icon

      Scatter gun...

      Can't complain, let's see what pans out. If they fail it's not like it matters a great deal to me to be honest.

      Myself I am quite intereted to see if they come out with a netbook sized ARM based thingy with a keyboard. Something like their proposed atom based Inspiron Duo thing.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dell vs Apple

    Dell = scatter gun

    Apple = sniper

    I guess you can get more of the public with a scatter gun, but pick off high value targets with a sniper.

    NB - please don't try this if you're in the US.

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  3. Michael C

    failed tactics and vaporware

    If you make a slew of products "hoping"one of them catches on, you've already failed at market analysis and clearly don't understand your customer base needs. Further, by releasing a half dozen products, you complicate what the devs are needing to code for, increase your own R&D costs, and manufacture fewer of each device, leaving a higher individual cost to make with higher software costs and less software selection. Complicate this by offering more than one OS and households looking for more than 1 form factor can't share apps and have vastly different user experiences.

    Plus, with a true tablet (10"+) not coming out for 6+ months (lets call it 9 months), Apple only has that much more time to establish a stranglehold, and other products will also fail in the meantime leading analysts to proclaim Dells latest as nothing more than the next failed attempt.

    I'm not the biggest apple fan, but I have to admit, the single OS, focused development, limited device variation, continued improvement in OS and hardware based on real market analysis and consumer feedback, high device build quality, cross platform support, shared app and content methodology (buy one ap, use it on up to 5 iOS devices on a single machine, and up to 5 machines on a single account) and a price point that no one else has yet matched? Anyone coming out with a similar performing (or better) device better plan on finding a price point more than $200 below the iPad or they will fail wen people honestly compare the whole package. Consumers in general don;t care about specs, they care about function, is it easy to use, can they find accessories, can they get support easily, and does it work with their existing other stuff (and their friend's stuff). Android has a big following, but its mostly limited to apple haterz ad the people Verizon and Sprint have literally shoved an Android device into the hands of that have no business (or want) to have it. Its complex, insecure, expensive, and fragmented. Feature for price, its a hard swallow unless it;s a lot cheaper. Phones are easy to choose from, and are not expected to do a lot, and a customer dissapoint can often be overcome with contract discounts. Tablets are a tough market since there's no recurring revenue stream. If a customer doesn't like the device, they return it. Dell is gonna loose tens of millions on this venture.

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    1. Daniel 1
      Reply Icon

      Well it will be a while before anyone can offer a large screen rival in big volumes

      The past, they say is another country, and what a country it sometimes is. Six months ago the iPad didn't exist, tablet PCs were a "failed format", and capacitive touch screens came in either of two sizes: vast (Microsoft Surface) or small (touch-phones).

      9.7 inches was a pretty exotic size for a touch screen, back then, and when Hon Hai and Foxconn knew they were getting the iPad contract, they essentially bought out the Planet's capacity for manufacturing devices in that form factor (indeed, their initial supplier for that screen, TPK Touch, failed the supply contract and lost it to Wintek).

      The result is, that the only people with the ability to make iPad-sized machines, in great volume, right now, are the ones who are producing the iPads as fast as they can make them - and there have been plenty of occasions, during that intervening half-year, when it has looked like even those supplies might dry up. This is the problem with trying to redirect and ramp up production in the tail of a recession.

      It is said that Compal has the contract to make Acer's forthcoming 10" tablet (although Quanta have also been put forward as the inevitable alternative, and why not? They're making almost every other iPad alternative device, already: even a duopoly is better than a monopoly, right?). It will be interesting to see who Compal/Quanta have found, to supply their components. Either company has the capacity, to do this, in terms of anything other than the components - but right now the components look like they are the main throttle on production. I wonder whether they will be able to match anything like Foxconn/Hon Hai's current output - even if the demand materialises?

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  4. Mike Moyle
    FAIL

    I seem to recall a phrase...

    ...something about throwing lots of shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

    Are they going to end up selling every size with a choice of any OS just to make sure that they include/confuse every possible potential buyer?

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  5. Paul Wells
    FAIL

    in the shops yet?

    Until I can walk into a store and buy one I'm not going to consider them a real product.

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  6. chrisdc
    Go

    Not that terrible an idea

    Whilst people are complaining that Dell aren't following the Apple business model, how many iPads have actually been sold? Sure they might bring in Apple a large profit, but apple already has a large audience willing to buy their stuff.

    What about all those people that don't need what an iPad offers? Those in companies that can't afford an iPad per employer? Those that need the freedom to be able to install their own software and rely on it being there. i.e not when some apple app store tech decides to remove it when the tablets next sync.

    The iPad is like the original apple computers. It will be overtaken by other systems when people realise that other systems provide more freedom, easier upgrade paths and better interoperability. The other companies may be making a bit of a mess right now, but given time an ecosystem will evolve that will leave apple in the dust....

    Well until apple jumps ahead again with... oh I dunno head mounted displays or neural interfaces or something...

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  7. Goat Jam
    FAIL

    Dell

    Smell the FAIL

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  8. Daniel 1

    "How many iPads have actually been sold?"

    Why don't you Google it?

    3 million.

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  9. Avatar of They
    Thumb Down

    Good god no!

    We are talking internet tablets and he mentioned windows.

    What possible system would you want that is touch screen, yet has to have a whirring HDD and AV all the time just to fit the bloated win7. Not to mention the loss of the light weight, go anywhere appeal if you are talking 2 minute boot up time, restart after each app installs etc.

    Then again seeing that video of Mr Dell showing off the android, and the "swipe once, swipe twice, swipe five times and then it responds" approach. I don't hold out much hope for Dell getting anything out the stores.

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    1. JEDIDIAH
      Reply Icon
      Linux

      Multimedia dwarfs any OS

      > What possible system would you want that is touch screen, yet has to have a whirring HDD and AV all the time just to fit the bloated win7

      Anything that has enough room for my MP3 collection can accomodate any real OS. Add video into the mix and you quickly dwarf any operating system regardless of the size. My favorite PMP has a 500G hard drive not for the OS but for it's ability to hold all of my music, all of my pictures, and a respectable number of videos.

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  10. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Any size any OS?

    @Avatar of They, it's worse then that, I think they are probably talking some form of WinCE.

    This approach would be interesting if you could get any size with any OS (before you say that's crazy, these probably all have ARMs in them and the hardware is probably quite similar other than screen size). Otherwise, though, I just see it being a bit of a mess... "Oh, you can't get *7 inch* with Android, only the 6 and the 9" and so on.

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