Dell Breaks With Tradition to Offer Desktops at Wal-Mart
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Dell, the personal computer maker that pioneered selling directly to customers over the Internet, said Thursday that it would start offering desktop systems at Wal-Mart Stores in a bid to challenge Hewlett-Packard.
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Dell Inc. , the world&#39;s  second-largest computer maker, said on Thursday it will soon  start selling its laptops and desktops at Asian retail chains  and stores.
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SAN FRANCISCO/BOSTON  - Dell Inc.  said on  Thursday it plans to start selling personal computers through  Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  in North America next month,  breaking from a 23-year model of direct sales as it tries to  rekindle business.
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Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends-- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of &quot;bloatware.&quot;
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Dell Inc. has stopped selling many computers with processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on its Web site, although it will continue selling some through retailers.
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Dell Inc. this week announced that it is in the process of closing its retail kiosks in shopping malls and airports.
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Dell has stopped taking orders for one model of its high-end desktop PCs, citing issues related to overclocking quad-core processors from Intel.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell began polling customers about their software preferences on Tuesday as part of an effort by the struggling PC vendor to meet a popular request for desktops and notebooks that run on Linux instead of Windows. Dell posted the survey on a company blog, asking PC users to choose between Linux flavors such as Fedora and Ubuntu, and to pick more general choices such as notebooks versus desktops, high-end models versus value models, and telephone-based support versus community-based support. The company plans to collect votes through March 23, then use the feedback to begin selling Linux-based consumer PCs. Dell already uses Linux in certain server models. "Taking a few minutes to complete this survey will help us define our forthcoming Linux-based system offerings," said Dell software architect Matt Domsch in his blog posting. "We'll take some time to analyze your feedback and work to provide the platforms and options you choose." TheÂ groundswell of demand for LinuxÂ began in February, shortly after company founder Michael Dell returned as CEO. Previous chief executive Kevin Rollins resigned in January as the company began to flounder during a series of problems, from drooping earnings reports to delayed financial filings, an accounting investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and an investor lawsuit. As part of his campaign to help the company renew its profits and regain market share from Hewlett-Packard, Michael Dell launched a company blog to collect customer feedback. Users immediately filled the blog with requests for an alternative to Microsoft's Windows Vista OS and Office suite, such as the Linux OS and OpenOffice productivity tools. On Feb. 23, Dell announced it will work with NovellÂ to install Linux on business PCs, including OptiPlex desktops, Latitude notebooks, and Dell Precision workstations. Dell also said it will work with other Linux providers since users requested many other versions of the OS, such as Novell/Suse Linux Desktop, Red Hat Enterprise Desktop, Fedora, OpenSuse, and Ubuntu. Although Michael Dell's populist approach is winning some praise, the change may come too late to save company profits in the short term. On Tuesday, a prominent analyst noted that Dell has been cutting the number of notebooks it orders from manufacturers in Taiwan. While the industry as a whole is expected to rebound in March from a sales slump preceding the launch of Windows Vista, Dell will deviate from that trend and trim its order for notebook manufacturing, said Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner in the report. Dell did not respond to a request for comment on the forecast. Dell is struggling financially, listing revenue and earnings growth at four-year lows even as its competitors begin to trim their costs and boost profits, Gardner said. At the same time, Dell faces future challenges as it sees slowing growth in its major markets, aggressive pricing by competitors willing to sell PCs at lower operating margins, and a general decline in prices as consumers find they can run more software applications on low-end PCs. Still, Dell's PC production remains slightly above the consensus forecast, Gardner said. In fact, the report counseled investors that HP and AppleÂ stock could rise faster than expected in the first half of 2007, and Dell will follow with strong long-term growth, beating estimates over a 12-to-18-month time span.
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Dell Inc. , the world's largest personal computer maker, on Tuesday unveiled a range of business computers, with some that meet stringent new environmental regulations and others that take steps to prevent network intrusions and theft of intellectual property.
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(InfoWorld) - The new team of leaders at Dell is weighing a request to give customers the option to purchase PCs with the Linux OS, instead of the default Windows, after thousands of users voted for that idea on a company blog. The idea appeared Friday on a company-hosted blog called Dell Idea Storm. CEO Michael Dell unveiled the blog Feb. 16 as part of hisÂ effort to reinvigorate the struggling company. Dell said he hoped to use the blog to collect users' feedback and improve customer service. Since then, company executives and department heads have been monitoring the site, paying closest attention to the ideas winning the most votes, Dell spokeswoman Caroline Dietz said on Wednesday. The most popular threads on Wednesday included demands for Linux-based laptops, consumer PCs that are not pre-loaded with unsolicited applications and requests for Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice applications instead of Microsoft's Office suite. Popular requests also included a preference for Mozilla's Firefox Web browser instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and pleas for Dell to stop routing service calls to operators in overseas countries such as India. Dell leaders have heard those ideas "loud and clear," and plan to post a statement on the blog this week explaining how they will react, Dietz said. But she warned that the company would judge ideas on more than just their popularity. "Just because an idea is number one or number two doesn't necessarily mean Dell will do it, but it does mean it will receive the highest level of attention," she said. Dell has already changed the blog rules to make the voting more accurate, after the site was flooded over the weekend by certain users clicking multiple times on their favorite links, Dietz said. Beginning Wednesday, Dell required users to register, ensuring that each person can vote just once for each posting. Another misleading aspect of popular threads is that each vote awards postings 10 "points," meaning that the Linux thread has about six thousand supporters, not the posted number of 67,703. The second-most popular thread -- the request for OpenOffice -- has 40,572 points, and a plea to avoid unwanted software applications has 27,476 points. Most other ideas on the 95-page blog have won only a handful of votes. Despite the blog's problems, Dell will someday decide to sell Linux-based PCs in their consumer market, experts say. "Look, they already have a strong partnership with Red Hat and Oracle to move Linux into the enterprise server space. I think what they're waiting for is some more compelling applications to show up on Linux for personal use. Think about what you use your laptop for -- it's usually office, games, music and Internet access. When all of these things come together in a consumer-friendly, seamless way there will be a case for Dell to adopt Linux on portables to sell to the masses," said Joe Clabby, president of Clabby Analytics. "My 84 year-old father-in-law only needs his PC for light word processing and for AOL access. He can get plenty of Linux word processors -- but where's AOL Linux? When the right applications show up, and when they are integrated, it will all come together," Clabby said. Fixing Dell's finances could call for such a bold move. Once a Wall Street darling thanks to its innovative "direct sales" business model, Dell has struggled in recent months with falling profits, anÂ accounting investigationÂ by federal stock regulators, a lawsuit by disgruntled investors, aÂ notebook battery recallÂ and finally the resignation on Jan. 31 of Dell's hand-picked successor as CEO, Kevin Rollins. SinceÂ resuming his job as CEOÂ of the company he founded in 1984, Dell has moved quickly to restore investors' confidence by ousting several long-time executives and replacing them with leaders from outside technology companies including Motorola and Selectron. Â
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InfoWorld - Underlining its expansion from online to retail sales, Dell launched desktop and notebook PCs Tuesday at Macy&#39;s department store in New York.
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Last week, Dell announced that it would begin selling two Dimension desktop computers through Wal-Mart Stores. It was a watershed moment.
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NEW YORK -- Dell took the wraps off its holiday lineup this week, showing new printers, plasma televisions, and music players that will soon be available through its Web site.
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Dell Inc  said on Friday  it had cut from its Web site most consumer computers with chips  from Advanced Micro Devices Inc  and would sell  AMD-based PCs mainly in stores and by phone.
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By THERESE POLETTI  Responding to the drubbing it has received from rival Hewlett- Packard in the consumer personal computer market, Dell announced a major shift in its strategy with plans to begin selling desktop PCs in Wal-Mart stores.
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MacCentral - Dell Inc. took the wraps off its holiday lineup on Thursday, showing new printers, plasma televisions and music players that will soon be available through its Web site.
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SAN FRANCISCO/ BOSTON  - Dell Inc.  said on Thursday it plans to start selling personal computers through Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  in North America next month, breaking from a 23-year model of direct sales as it tries to rekindle business.