Concluding the trilogy of nerd-themed posts, here's some guy's ode to the PS3:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Dell cares about lazy consumers
Dell's decision to consult their customers on how they could improve their products has thrown up some interesting results. Top of the wishlist at Idea Storm are pre-installed Linux, OpenOffice and Firefox, which leads me to only one conclusion - Dell users are the laziest people on Earth. With the exception of installing Linux, most of their wishes could be fulfilled by taking an hour out of their DotA-filled day to download OpenOffice and Firefox and mod them as they liked. But then again, why bother when Uncle Dell is offering to pre-install all those little goodies for a niche market?
I have nothing against Linux, but so far it hasn't proven that it is ready for a mass-market release. Sure, once you've installed all the packages and got it set up it's pretty adequate, but any computer manufacturer looking to sell it as a pre-installed OS has a mammoth task ensuring it'll be compatible with popular hardware. Moreover, Linux can be daunting for the casual user, a demographic I'm not certain has been fairly represented on Idea Storm. Dell's expected profits from this move must reflect the limitations of the as yet nascent Linux market.
At first glance, it may look as if the company is making progress towards recapturing the market share it lost to Hewlett Packard and doing so in a fresh and innovative, almost Apple-esque fashion. Unfortunately, of all the ideas they could have chosen to implement first, they chose the easiest and least effective one. Improving customer service, making their laptops more energy-efficient, more memory for the same price, continued support for Windows XP - these are the issues Dell should be looking at. Like it or not, Windows users far outnumber Linux and Mac OSX users, and not everyone is currently ready to take the plunge into the unknown world of Windows Vista. Rather than forcing consumers who buy their high-performance PCs to switch to Vista, Dell should offer the option of installing Windows XP Home/Professional at reduced cost.
Perhaps there is more to come from Dell, but one can't help feeling they are only paying lip service to the actual needs of their customers.
I have nothing against Linux, but so far it hasn't proven that it is ready for a mass-market release. Sure, once you've installed all the packages and got it set up it's pretty adequate, but any computer manufacturer looking to sell it as a pre-installed OS has a mammoth task ensuring it'll be compatible with popular hardware. Moreover, Linux can be daunting for the casual user, a demographic I'm not certain has been fairly represented on Idea Storm. Dell's expected profits from this move must reflect the limitations of the as yet nascent Linux market.
At first glance, it may look as if the company is making progress towards recapturing the market share it lost to Hewlett Packard and doing so in a fresh and innovative, almost Apple-esque fashion. Unfortunately, of all the ideas they could have chosen to implement first, they chose the easiest and least effective one. Improving customer service, making their laptops more energy-efficient, more memory for the same price, continued support for Windows XP - these are the issues Dell should be looking at. Like it or not, Windows users far outnumber Linux and Mac OSX users, and not everyone is currently ready to take the plunge into the unknown world of Windows Vista. Rather than forcing consumers who buy their high-performance PCs to switch to Vista, Dell should offer the option of installing Windows XP Home/Professional at reduced cost.
Perhaps there is more to come from Dell, but one can't help feeling they are only paying lip service to the actual needs of their customers.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Gets me every time
It's always a good time for a Microsoft joke, especially if it's created by the employees of the world's largest software corporation. Enjoy.
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