Some of you may remember when Dell attempted make a name for themselves in the digital music player market by launching a couple of different music players in 2003. And you may remember that in 2006 they decided to end production of both their hard drive and flash-based players because they simply could not compete with Apple and the iPod. Knowing they had a hard time back in 2006 competing with Apple, we were shocked to see that they have decided to re-enter the digital music player market once again.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report this, and they say that several Dell officials have confirmed that they are once again working on a digital music device to compete with the iPod. It is rumored to launch as early as September this year and would feature:
- Wi-Fi connectivity so users connect to online music service
- Small navigation screen
- Basic buttons for controls for scrolling
- Likely priced under $100
According to Reuters, Dell would be taking a completely different route with this player than they did their previous players. They say, “Instead of simply selling a piece of hardware tied to someone else’s music service, as it did in 2003, Dell is working on software for a range of portable PCs that will let users download and organize music and movies from various online sources.”
Our only question for Dell is, what makes them think they can come back again now and take on Apple? Knowing Microsoft has put all of their effort into the Zune and they haven’t been able to do it, is this a waste of time and effort for Dell? Hopefully they have several million set aside for a good marketing effort, because they’ll need it!
Weren’t all Dell MP3 players just Creative players with Dell printed on them?
Sounds like a dumb move to me, but as a consumer, I love to see someone challenging Apple’s dominance.
Yes, the players were engineered by Creative, and according to Wikipedia they were, “based on the same hardware and software platform as the Creative NOMAD/Creative Zen digital audio players.
Always nice to see competition, it’s just interesting that Dell is making a second attempt when they failed the first time around.
Good luck!
They’ll definitely need a lot of that on their side.