Dell plays price card with Novell Linux
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com October 27, 2004, 8:05 AM PT. ZDNet&#39;s survey of IT professionals in October kept upgrading hardware at number two on the businesses radar throughout the year.
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Yesterday, Novell shipped its Linux Desktop 9 product, the software maker&#39;s attempt to unseat Windows on business PCs. Developed with SUSE underpinnings and based on Kernel 2.6, Novell liberally sprinkled
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Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) today introduced two new ways for customers to share  ideas and experiences directly with their peers and the company.
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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 has taken an aggressive pricing strategy in its competition with Apple in the music player space. Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox reported in his blog today that Dell has dropped pricing on the 15
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Two desktops and an Inspiron E1505n notebook PC running Ubuntu 7.04 Linux go on sale today.
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Dell (Quote, Chart) officials announced Wednesday an agreement with Linux distributor Novell (Quote, Chart) to distribute and support SUSE Enterprise Server 9 on its single- and dual-processor line of servers.
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Novell has begun a widely available trial of its Open Enterprise Server, software that combines tools from the company&#39;s proprietary NetWare with the open-source SuSE Linux operating system.
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Dell customers can upgrade from Microsoft Windows XP to Dell&#39;s XP Media Center operating system for half the price as part of a promotion running from now until Nov. 22.
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Dell Inc.  is considering  offering the Linux operating system as an alternative to  Microsoft Corp.'s  Windows on its personal computers, a  Dell spokesman said on Tuesday.
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NOVEMBER 15, 2004  - Novell Inc. last week began shipping a desktop version of Linux that is designed for business users and comes with a bundled set of open-source applications as well as technical support, training and consulting options.
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Dell has taken an aggressive pricing strategy in its competition with Apple in the music player space. Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox reported in his
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Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is giving its corporate customers a break, announcing price cuts on hardware ranging from enterprise servers and workstations, to desktops and notebooks for large business and institutional customers.
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Dell rarely misses an opportunity to remind chief rival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) which outfit is king of low-cost PCs. On Dec. 6, one day before HP&#39;s semiannual meeting with analysts and investors, Dell (DELL
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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.
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Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have joined forces in enticing software developers to create applications for Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server software on the IBM Power platform, hoping to provide a boost for Linux among IBM hardware customers.
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(InfoWorld) - Underlining its expansion from online to retail sales, Dell launched desktop and notebook PCs Tuesday at Macy's department store in New York. The company announced nine new Inspiron desktops and notebooks and an XPS M1330 notebook, all available in a choice of eight shell colors. "The Dell of today is vastly different from the Dell of six months ago or even last week," said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dellâs consumer product group. "We're here at Macy's in New York City. That alone is different for Dell, being in a department store or any kind of retail setting at all." Dell even set up a portable kiosk to take orders for the new PCs in a temporary space it will occupy at Macy's for the next two weeks, he said. The new Inspiron notebooks cost $749 for the model 1521 to $999 for the model 1720, with a choice of processors from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices. The Inspiron 1420 comes with an additional choice of Microsoft's Windows Vista or the Ubuntu Linux operating system, for $799. The Inspiron desktops start at $349 for models 530, 530s, 531, and 531s, all supporting up to 500GB of disk space to store digital media files, with the model 530 offering a choice between Windows and Linux. The XPS M1330 notebook costs $1,299 with a 13.3-inch widescreen display, weighs under 4 pounds, and comes with a one-year subscription to Dell's Online Backup service, where users can store 10GB of files on Dell servers for remote data access. In an effort to bolster its sliding market share and quarterly profits,Â Dell began selling certain PC models at Wal-MartÂ retail stores on June 10, marking the first time it had strayed from the direct sales model. Dell rose to prominence by cutting its costs through eliminating retail middlemen and selling its PCs through only its Web site, phone lines, and catalogs. That system began to fail in 2006, as competitors cut costs and Hewlett-Packard passed Dell to become the world's largest PC vendor. Now Dell is in the midst of a corporate reorganization announced May 31 that includesÂ laying off 10 percent of its 88,100 workers. Dell hopes its new retail presence will allow it to fix a strategic mistake. By trying to beat its competitors through low prices in recent years, Dell found itself spending all its publicity efforts promoting its least exciting products, Gruzen said. Selling PCs in retail stores gives Dell an opportunity to showcase its premium PC models and bring new luster to its corporate image at the same time. "This is really just a hint of what we're doing to get these exciting new products into customers' hands," Gruzen said. "We have a broader retail strategy, and over the coming months, we will announce more partnerships, both with Wal-Mart and with other retailers." Also on Tuesday, Dell unveiled a new marketing tagline -- "yours is here" -- that shares many values with HP's "the computer is personal again" campaign. Both companies are increasing the number of options they give customers to personalize PCs and bundling tools that make it easier to handle personal tasksÂ such asÂ digital photos and music as well as business jobs. Dell emphasized those increased choices with its color options for each PC, including pink, yellow, green, red, and blue, as well as standard white and black. An increasing number of PC vendors will soon begin to follow that pattern, trying to differentiate themselves with flashy style and design instead of solely through technical detailsÂ such asÂ processing power, according to a report released this week by Forrester Research. "The consumer PC industry is entering the Age of Style, a time in which radical form factor innovations, increased aesthetic diversity, and consumer choice and personalization will determine which models, and which PC vendors, win or lose," Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder said in the report.