Dell, Microsoft team up to sell (Red) computers
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Dell Inc  and Microsoft Corp   are teaming up to release a Product Red computer,  donating up to $80 for every one sold to fund AIDS-fighting  drugs in Africa.
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The two tech giants plan to announce a total of three (Product) Red PCs, with a portion of sales to go to the African AIDS charity.
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Google on Thursday confirmed a long-rumored deal that will bundle some of its software on Dell Inc.&#039;s personal computers, providing the online search engine leader with another potentially potent weapon in its fierce rivalry with Microsoft Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell reached for a larger share of the small business market Tuesday, launching the "Vostro" brand of notebook and desktop PCs designed to simplify tech support, an area that has attracted complaints and lawsuits for Dell in recent months. To make Vostro PCs easier to use, Dell will ship them without any "trialware," Dell's term for the unwanted software applications that many PC manufacturers load on new computers in the factory in exchange for payments from the software vendors. In June,Â Dell agreed to let customers opt out of those programs after customers complained about that "bloatware" on a company blog. In another step intended to make Vostro PCs easier to use, Dell streamlined the setup process. A customer without any IT experience can get a Vostro PC up and running in six minutes and can connect it to the company network in only six steps, CEO Michael Dell said at a press conference in New York. And to make tech support easier for companies with fewer than 25 employees, Dell will offer support services, such as dedicating 6,500 of its customer service workers to Vostro products, offering 24-hour access to online tech support, and providing 10GB of online data storage for a year. The new computers include the Vostro 200 desktop with Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a choice between Microsoft's Windows XP or Vista operating systems. Vostro notebooks include the Vostro 1000 with dual-core AMD chips and Vostro 1400, 1500, and 1700, offering screen sizes of 14.1 inches, 15.4 inches, or 17 inches respectively. Dell is selling the models starting at $449 for the notebooks and starting at $319 for the desktop. The company also plans to add a high-performance desktop model to the family in late August. Although Dell has lost much of its market share to Hewlett-Packard in recent quarters, the company is playing to its strength by focusing on small business users, said one analyst who attended the press conference. "They still have a lot of brand equity in the small business market, and they're extending that with this offer," said Merle Sandler, senior research analyst at IDC. "With the services, they become a trusted advisor, and hopefully down the road they can turn that into a revenue stream." Michael Dell acknowledged that point in remarks to reporters, saying, "Small business is a rapidly growing market. It's also a place where there is enormous demand and need for technology." At the same time, he said, "Our customers all tell us, 'Make it simple'." Still, the company faces a challenge in repairing its reputation relative to customer service. In May, New York state's attorney generalÂ filed a lawsuit charging that Dell had used fraud and false advertisingÂ to increase profits on PC sales, applying high credit rates to computer purchases despite a promise of cheap financing. Indeed, Michael Dell stumbled over several of the questions posed by a crowd of small business owners at the press conference. He smiled at one user's story about experiencing Dell customer service problems after experimenting with competing PCs from Sony and Toshiba, and he winced at another customer's plea for Dell to keep offering Windows XP because of the "horror stories" she had heard about Vista. He also grew defensive after a customer asked whether Dell would offer a hundred-dollar laptop such as the XO computer designed for developing countries by a team at MIT led by Nicholas Negroponte. Dell pointed out that MIT had recently raised its price to $170 and that a better way to get cheap PCs in the hands of schoolchildren would be to re-use the 125 million PCs discarded each year by users in western nations. "We've sold more PCs in the U.S. than anyone else ... but that doesn't mean we're going to walk away from our responsibility. Our team has made big investments not only on the product side but in service and support," Dell said.
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Microsoft Corp.  said it will  begin selling a stripped-down, low-cost version of its Windows  XP operating system in the emerging markets of Indonesia,  Malaysia and Thailand in order to spread the use of computing  and develop technology markets.
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Dell Inc  said it would  sell personal computers, printers, monitors and ink supplies in  1,400 Staples Inc  stores in the United States, its  latest move into retail after breaking from 23 years of selling  directly to consumers.
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Partner to sell technologies that will allow users to operate and manage telephone calls from their desktops.
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Triple alliance. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) on Friday announced that it will join with Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ) to furnish the US Air Force with software and related tech support
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Dell  and Microsoft   are teaming up to release a Product Red computer, donating up  to $80 for every one sold to fund AIDS-fighting drugs in  Africa.
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REDMOND, Wash. Microsoft and Round Rock, Texas,-based Dell Computer have won a military contract worth more than 500 (m) million dollars.
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Microsoft Corp. on Friday said that together with Dell Inc. it will provide the Air Force with software and related support services to simplify the acquisition process in an agreement worth up to $500 million over six years.
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Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has been chosen under the Army's Desktop Mobile Computing (ADMC-2) contract to provide desktop and notebook computers, displays, printers and peripherals for three years.
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Joint offering aims to deliver Dell hardware with Symantec software to protect Microsoft Exchange-based e-mail systems.
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Microsoft and Dell are looking to merge their Systems Management Server and OpenManage suites to create a powerful, easy and cost-effective server management solution.
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Dell has won a $700 million hardware and services contract with Philips Electronics. The deal will include the sale of Dell OptiPlex desktop computers, Precision workstations and Latitude
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Software maker Microsoft Corp. on  Friday said it and computer maker Dell Inc. will supply  software and services to the U.S. Air Force, in a deal valued  at more than $500 million over 6 years.
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DELL has teamed up with Microsoft to offer two new storage products which it claims offer better performance at affordable pricing.