Just a few short weeks ago, Michael Dell announced that his company should no longer be considered a consumer PC and device maker. Dell should now be considered an IT vendor with a focus on enterprise data center products, went the message. The company was going to get out of the device and peripheral business.
What a difference a few weeks can make when it comes to a company’s message. While the tech world focused on today’s launch of Apple’s new iPad, Dell’s chief commercial officer Steve Felice was talking up the company’s ability to challenge the iPad in business environments. Or put more accurately, the ability that Dell will have to challenge the iPad when Windows 8 ships later this year.
Felice was busy making the same kinds of statements that we’ve heard time and time again over the past two years from the likes of Lenovo, HP, RIM, and Dell itself among others.
On the commercial side there are a lot of concerns about security, interoperability, systems and device management.
That argument that may have rung true two years ago, but plenty of companies and their IT departments have had time to explore how to secure and manage the iPad (and the iPhone, for that matter) as well as to get a solid understanding of the integration capabilities that Apple has built into iOS.
Considering that IT leaders are now moving beyond the concept of device management and embracing information and data management or mobile app management, Dell’s focus on device management in this statement makes the company seem out of touch with even its core IT customers.
Interestingly, Felice provided no specifics about Dell’s plan with Windows 8 as far as specific devices or price points. Given that Windows on ARM (WOA) tablets are expected to have no enterprise integration and security features compared to those that the new iPad (or the iPad 2 or even the original iPad) has out of the box, makes it hard to consider WOA tablets as an option for most businesses. Windows 8 on x86 tablets will ship with full enterprise and Active Directory support but aren’t expected to be able to compete with the iPad on price.
Ultimately, Felice’s comments and sense of optimism don’t match up with the reality that the iPad is dominating the business tablet space with 96% of the market and with 84% companies planning tablet purchases choosing the iPad.
This sense is summed up by one of his comments to Reuters:
We come at the market in a different way … We are predominantly a company that has a great eye on the commercial customer who also wants to be a consumer.
A sentiment that complete misses the point that Apple, in doing the complete opposite, has managed to position itself perfectly for the consumerization of IT and BYOD trends that are redefining IT and technology in the workplace.
Ryan Faas is a technology journalist and consultant living in upstate New York who has written extensively about Apple, business and enterprise IT, and the mobile industry. In addition to writing for Cult of Mac, he is a contributor to Computerworld, InformIT, and Peachpit Press. In a previous existence he was a healthcare IT director as well as a systems and network administrator. Follow Ryan on Twitter and Google +.
30 responses to “Dell Exec Trashes iPad In Business Amid New iPad Launch”
Man, those grapes must be extra sour today..
Dell makes SH*T, and they know just enough to support that.
Hey look link-bait… Throw some more red meat to the cult members.
This is so funny. No one really realizes that they have no chance. The keep saying it every year. we will kill the iPad. The iPad killer is here. They announce products every year, only a handful out of a hundred makes it to the market. Where are all those killer tablets?
Jm2c
Carsten
From the same company who’s CEO said Apple should close up shop and return equity to the stockholders, a few years back. Sounds like Dell uses the same reality advisor as Joe Biden.
I’d like some the pharmaceuticals that they’re obviously taking over there at Dell. Do they even listen to themselves? They’re products have become crap and they don’t know how to sell to or work with enterprises. Do they not realize that Apple is GROWING in the enterprise? When they can figure out how to shrink a rack server into a tiny box like Apple has done with Xserve and MacMini, then maybe they’ll gain some traction. On a day that tens or hundreds of thousands of people are standing in lines to pay a large chunk of hard-earned cash on an evolutionary device on it’s first day out you choose to trash talk it? Wow, Dell is so out of touch.
and Dell has apparently hired George Bush’s “strategery” and planning teams that are actively involved in forecasting the future: “There is a poster … we’re gonna git Osama, dead or alive” and the whole thing about weapons of mass destruction is Iraq was another winner… :)
“We come at the market in a different way…”years late, promising the moon, but eventually delivering expensive dirt.
The real surprise to me is that Corporate IT is getting rid of some of their absolute shit technology and replacing it with something that’s actually good, like the iPad. That’s the real news – they’ve been content with expensive garbage for so long, I did not think they’d ever change.
Apple isn’t challenging the Windows stack – but the danger for Microsoft I think is that businesses will suddenly figure out that not only do they not need Windows – there are actually much better products out there that do all the stuff that Windows does (badly). They do it cheaper, but also, more importantly, much better.
I am an independent contractor and doing business with a small startup that’s all on Basecamp, Pivotal, and a host of other independent business solutions that work together is bliss. I can directly compare this to my corporate client with “All Windows All the Time” – that they get anything done is a miracle, given how crappy their technology is. Efficient? Nope. Cheap? Absolutely not.
Hmmm I dont know about that man…. Those Dell Precision workstations make mincemeat of big 3d renders and rendering out motion graphics.
If you’re paid $200k a year from Dell, of course, you have to ignore the realities of the actual situation and make it up as you go. Dell is willing to roll the dice with intel & WIN since they’ll pay them a huge subsidy and good news, WIN tablets will be the first where 20% of the screen is obscure by stickers.
There is can’t be any “VS’s” at all!
I work for seven years with Dell Computer (developper), and this hardware is worse each year. Cheap hardware and low performance. Don’t have the choice with our IT manager but out of the box Dell computers should go direct to the recycle bin, and it is a shame they sell this crap to companies !
So start criticizing your own crappy products before other ones.
And by the way, Michael Dell should shut down his company and give the money back to shareholders …
As of last week, out of 10 pcs shipped to us, two would not boot (broken power supply), one had a dent (even though the shipping box was just fine), a monitor was cracked, another monitor had a broken pedestal. If it were up to me, I would sell Dell to Asus so that Dell would go the way E-machines and Gateway, they all went. It would also let some shareholders retire in peace.
I’d say most of the stuff Dell makes IS shit. They have nice monitors, trashy laptops and desktops, most of it the Inspiron line. In order to get something of quality, it’ll cost ya, like with the Precision line. But for Dell to smack talk the iPad and say they could do better with a product’s hardware which they do not make running an operating which they do not make reeks of patheticness.
I work in an IT department for a fairly big company (17,000 employees) and two years ago iPad were not taken seriously. Now every member of the board uses them, our regional managers and area managers not to mention our networks team and our data centre ops all of who need something small and light that is secure, works well with active sync and can be remotely wiped. We recently moved from Dell servers to IBM because they were too expensive and difficult to support. Good luck Dell.
Dell should close, liquidate their assets and pay the stockholders off…. sound familiar?
Dell is a Dud.
Our IT department has 3 iPads, and use them for remote troubleshooting and database/network monitoring. Our CIO had to be woken up at 5am to troubleshoot an accountants PC, and did it all from his bed using his iPad. He was back asleep 20 minutes later.
Now tell me again how iPads are useless in the IT world.
Well, what do you want him to say? How superior Apple products are compared to Dell’s? :p
Dell isn’t the same company it used to be, it’s trying the IBM method of going into services and consulting, which is a smart move.
As for products, they still make a mean Linux server.
(Yes folks, even Apple uses Linux servers)
They’re still an obstacle for shops that write their own software.
1. 95% of the IT world writes their software in Java or .NET, across client-server and web applications. So in order to write that same software in house they need to purchase Macs, since XCode only runs in OS X.
2. Objective-C is a programmer’s worst nightmare (in most cases).
3. Unless your shop adopts Apple’s corporate licensing model, each iPad needs to be activated with a personal Apple account, and with that comes the App Store. Most shops don’t allow their employees access to solitaire in Windows, let alone Angry Birds :p
4. It’s still unknown how much these personal digital devices report back with hook-ins to their respective maker. So I’m not just throwing Apple into this mix either, any tablet or smartphone maker/software owner (Apple, Google, Microsoft) probably has many hooks into their respective servers, thus making security and overall device administration a potential nightmare.
Not sure if you realize that eMachines and Gateway (and Alienware) were bout by Dell but yeah, your point is that those brands went away.
Not sure if you realize that eMachines and Gateway (and Alienware) were bout by Dell but yeah, your point is that those brands went away.
Is Dell still in business? What do they make room heaters or something? I guess Michael Dell is like Steve Balmer, they both do not own an iPad, iPod, or Mac. That’s alright, I do not own poorly made Dell PCs or buggy Windows products, so we are even.
Pelosi: “Others Have Talked About This Threat That Is Posed By Saddam Hussein. Yes, He Has Chemical Weapons, He Has Biological Weapons, He Is Trying To Get Nuclear Weapons.” (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Record, 10/10/02, p. H7777)
Sen. Kerry: “The Crisis Is Even More Threatening By Virtue Of The Fact That Iraq Has Developed A Chemical Weapons Capability, And Is Pursuing A Nuclear
Weapons Development Program.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/2/90, p. S14332)
Gore: “[I]f You Allow Someone Like Saddam Hussein To Get Nuclear Weapons, Ballistic Missiles, Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons, How Many People Is He Going To Kill With Such Weapons? He’s Already Demonstrated A Willingness To Use These Weapons …” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 12/16/98)
and the list gets longer. Seems the dems have you drinking their Kool-Aid, I_am_chris :-) Go back to watching TV, they will tell you what next to believe.
exactly how many hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis did bush kill looking for phantom WMD? Scott Ritter was all over the world begging Bush not to start wars he couldn’t finish… so Thomas… exactly WHERE are these WMD? oh yes, and if you recall, it was Obama/Biden who disposed of Osama, not that swaggering idiot from Texas…
If the Dell is now all about the Enterprise they really need to focus on that a lot harder. My corporation uses them for our IT support and…well, they pretty much suck. We end up solving most of our issues ourselves because they’re just not up to the task.
Interesting statement considering that Apple locks the filesystem down, and Windows 8 does not? Or is Win8 limiting the access to the filesystem more than 7?
Now, to successfully finish the “I’m Apple”-talk, they need to shorten their name, just like Apple Computers to Apple Inc…. I suggest “De”.
Thomas:
Well, where ARE the WMD the the Shrub invaded Iraq over? When WILL he be held accountable for all of the death, destruction and upheaval his “excellent adventure” caused? It seems to me that by ANY real definition, he is a war criminal… He should be tried in the Hague…What Pelosi said or did not say in 2002 is irrelevant: she did NOT have the authority to commit troops (somehow you neo-cons give equivalence to what someone said with what someone did…)
What Kerry said in 1990 is also irrelevant… since that time, Scott Ritter and crew eliminated most of the WMD that Saddam had. You can’t quote a statement from 1990 as justification for Bush’s actions in 2003. The stuff that they did not eliminate was biological weapon waste that had a “shelf life” beyond which it was not efficacious as a weapon. They may well have had tanks of the stuff, but it was useless…
The concept of “shelf life” is something non-scientists have a great difficulty understanding: go and use a jar of mayonnaise that has been sitting on a shelf for 13 years and tell me how great it tastes…
It seems that you have to look at a statement in full context of relevansce and timing, something neo-cons have a great deal of difficulty doing… You focus in on one statement, or one fact, independent of time and space, and beat it over and over until you drive your mal-proven point home…
Both Kerry’s and Gore’s statements PRECEDE the first Gulf War under Poppy Bush when he chickened out and did not GET Saddam even though he had a “real” coalition, not the fictitious “coalition of the willing” under the directorship of his boy…