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Dell (DELL) Expanding R&D Staff and Changing Focus

February 2nd, 2012
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Personal Computing powerhouse Dell is going to go through a bit of restructuring soon, but this time it doesn’t mean scores of layoffs. Dell is actually expanding their development efforts and announced today that they would be expanding their research and development staff at their Silicon Valley headquarters. To help support this new employment push, Dell will be constructing another building directly across from their main headquarters.

Dell also announced that in addition to the over 800 new hires they plan to take on that they are going to change thier development focus a little bit. The overwhelming profitability of smartphones has pushed the personal computing company into new spheres, and they will now be focusing their efforts on supporting existing platforms and hardware with cloud computing solutions and software.

Though Dell is primarily known as a computer hardware manufacturing company, they are hoping to change their image in the years ahead, and become more of a total IT solutions provider. They began their process of transformation in 2009 with a number of key aquisitions that moved them beyond simple computer parts and assembly. Now with the new building, new focus on service and additional staff, Dell should have all it needs to re-position itself in an ever-changing marketplace.

However, questions still remain about whether Dell will truly become fully integrated into the mobile market with it’s own branded tablet or smartphone. When pressed on the issue Dave Johnson, Dell senior vice president of corporate strategy, said in an interview “Is it critical to be the innovator of the smartphone? Maybe not. What I would say is incredibly important is it has to be a part of your solutions. It’s going to become a part of everything you do.”

Source:http://localizedusa.com/2012/01/31/dell-dell-expanding-rd-staff-and-changing-focus/

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iPad sales beat HP, Lenovo, Dell PC numbers

January 26th, 2012
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Apple sold more iPad tablets last quarter than any single PC maker sold personal computers.

The company’s CEO used the opportunity to again predict that the tablet market would one day be larger than that for traditional laptop and desktop PCs.

“As I’ve said before, I truly believe, and many others in the company believe, that there will come a day that the tablet market is larger than the PC market,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a Tuesday earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

According to Apple, the company sold 15.4 million iPads worldwide in 2011’s final three months, more than double the number it sold in the same period a year earlier and an increase of 39% over the former record of 11.1 million, set in the third quarter of last year.

Research firm IDC has estimated that Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest PC manufacturer, shipped 15.1 million computers in the fourth quarter, just short of the iPad’s number. Lenovo and Dell — numbers two and three, respectively — shipped 13 million and 11.9 million units.

Altogether, approximately 92.7 million PCs were shipped during 2011’s final quarter.

But while Apple’s iPad sales were impressive, the tablet didn’t generate more revenue than its PC cousins: The average sales price (ASP) of an iPad in the fourth quarter was $593, lower than either the global desktop ASP of $600 or the laptop ASP of $758.

And although the iPad outsold HP, Lenovo and Dell during last year’s final months, it fell short of matching any of the top three for 2011 as a whole. During 2011, Apple said it sold 40.7 million iPads; HP, Dell and Lenovo sold 62.3 million, 44.3 million and 44 million machines, respectively, said IDC.

However, Apple’s 2011 tablet sales did exceed the year’s PC shipments by the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest computer makers, Acer (37.2 million) and Asus (20.7 million).

But IDC analyst David Daoud, one of the team that tracks PC sales for the research company, doesn’t think the comparison of tablets to computers was close to an apples-to-apples appraisal.

“No, it’s not a fair comparison,” Daoud said. “Tablets are companion devices to PCs that serve different purposes. Have they dampened PC sales? Yes. It’s clear that there’s a certain amount of cannibalization. But the [iPad] numbers speak more to the appearance of a new market and new products, not the death of the PC.”

In fact, Daoud believes that the iPad’s big sales number is a good sign for the PC business, not cause for doom and gloom.

“The PC [industry] will benefit from the iPad side,” argued Daoud. “We are going to see, by the end of the year or early in 2013, a proliferation of devices that are going to try to compete with the iPad, a uber-computer that fills the need of the old computer world but also runs applications as a tablet.

“It’s inevitable that the PC will morph into this uber-computer,” Daoud said. “So I see the iPad actually invigorating the PC market.”

That assumes Microsoft wraps up Windows 8 this year, and that the radically revamped operating system is a hit.

“Microsoft has a huge burden on its shoulder right now,” Daoud said.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223707/iPad_sales_beat_HP_Lenovo_Dell_PC_numbers

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Dell to launch consumer tablet PC‎

January 11th, 2012
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Dell Inc intends to launch its first consumer tablet computer in late 2012, marking its entry into a hotly contested and increasingly crowded arena that has already claimed arch-foe Hewlett Packard.

The once-dominant corporation founded by Michael Dell has seen a growing crop of tablets and smartphones entice consumers away from PCs. But Dell learned from the hastiness of some of its peers and understands better now how consumers value the “ecosystem” of a tablet as much as the hardware, chief commercial officer Steve Felice said.

The Texas company, which has slipped steadily in the global PC sales rankings, had dipped its toe in the waters with an enterprise-focused, “Streak” tablet. It now plans a bigger push into the consumer arena, Felice told Reuters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

While rivals from HP to Research in Motion introduced a spate of gadgets with much fanfare and went toe-to-toe with the still-dominant Apple Inc iPad, Dell kept a low profile with good reason, Felice said.

“We have been taking our time. The general failure of everyone that’s tried to introduce a tablet outside of Apple” suggested Dell made a prudent choice, Felice said in an interview. “You will see us enter this market in a bigger way toward the end of the year. So we are not really deemphasizing it, we are really being very careful how we enter it.

“When you are talking about PC, people are more focused on the hardware itself. When you are talking about the tablet or the smartphone, people are interested in the overall environment its operating in,” he added. “As we have matured in this, we are spending a lot more time in the overall ecosystem.”

Cards close to vest
Felice was coy about which non-Apple operating system Dell might adopt — Microsoft Corp’s upcoming Windows 8 or Google Inc’s popular Android — saying both were viable options.

But Felice did say he liked the feel of Microsoft’s touch-enabled operating system, which would be well-timed when it emerges later this year in light of recent high-profile product failures, from HP’s now-defunct TouchPad to RIM’s PlayBook.

“There hasn’t been a lot of advancement and it’s given Microsoft a good window to come into the market with Windows 8. I like the touch Windows 8 feature,” said Felice, who previously headed Dell’s large enterprise division.

“We like Windows 8 but we continue to develop with Android as well. We are still going to be more choice-driven, based on the feedback we get from customers.”

Dell’s maiden foray into consumer tablets comes as the iPad and other well-received gadgets such as Samsung’s Galaxy eat into PC sales. Some industry executives maintain that tablets do not cannibalize to the extent imagined.

On Monday, Michael Dell said at an event in the southern Indian city of Bangalore that tablets were an “additional device.”

Others warn that clunky laptops are coming increasingly under threat as tablets grow more powerful and take on a plethora of tasks from Web surfing to sophisticated graphics and video manipulation.

“When we introduce the products, they will be consumer products, but we are going to make sure that they are very compatible with the business marketplace, which we don’t think Apple has addressed,” Felice said. “There’s lot of use in the commercial sector that requires security and more compatibility, and I think we will be able to address that in a better way.”

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/hardware/Dell-to-launch-consumer-tablet-PC/articleshow/11446287.cms

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Last Minute SSD Upgrade Delays Razer Blade Shipments to January 2012

December 23rd, 2011
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We’ve been chomping at the bit to play with Razer’s upcoming Razer Blade gaming notebook ever since it was revealed in August, and like everyone else, it looks like we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer to find out if it lives up to the hype. A last minute storage upgrade prompted Razer to delay the release until Janaury 2012.

Razer made the announcement on its Facebook page and split it into good and bad news portions. The good news? Razer decided to yank the 320GB mechanical hard drive and plop a 256GB solid state drive in its place, and do so without raising the price. We already knew about this actually, since Razer CEO Min-Liang Tag broke the news in an interview with Kotaku earlier this month. In any event, Razer says this type of upgrade would generally add anywhere from $300 to $500 on top of the list price if you were to configure a similar upgrade at Dell or Apple.

Ironically, the good news is also the reason for the bad news.

“Because we managed to upgrade the HDD to an SSD at the eleventh hour, we were only able to secure quantities of the new SSDs to arrive at our manufacturing facilities at the last minute and as a result, we will not be able to fulfil our initial launch orders of the Razer Blade before the holidays,” Razer said. “We expect to be able to ship our initial quantities of the Razer Blade only in mid to late January for our customers in North America. We will be doing everything humanly possible to bring this date forward if we can.”

So there you have it, the Razer Blade won’t be under any Christmas trees this month. To make up for the disappointing news, Razer says you can go to the Razer Blade store and sign up at the “Notify Me” button to receive a notification when it ships in 2012, along with a coupon code for a Razer Orochi Blade Edition mouse to include in your order at no additional cost.

Source:http://hothardware.com/News/Last-Minute-SSD-Upgrade-Delays-Razer-Blade-Shipments-to-January-2012/

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Dell’s Alienware Aurora Delivers Extreme Gaming Performance and Experience as Game Developers Intended in Most Advanced Desktop Ever

December 14th, 2011
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Helps Competitive Gamers Push the Limits of Hardcore Gaming

–Tweet This: Dell unveils Alienware Aurora: the most advanced gaming desktop ever. Link #Alienware

Competitive gamers asked for the ultimate gaming pc, and Dell’s new Alienware Aurora gaming desktop computer, unveiled today, delivers. It is the company’s most advanced desktop ever delivering the extreme gaming performance and experience game developers intended for their players. With the latest technology and intelligent design, gamers can envelop themselves in the action, experience blazing fast performance and immersive graphics.

– The Aurora desktop delivers the pure, raw power that gamers crave. The systems come loaded with the new 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3000 series six-core CPUs, factory overclocked(1) and liquid cooled, with the Intel X79 Express Chipset (Dell’s first consumer system to offer this chipset), Quad Channel DDR3(2) memory and the latest SATA technology.

– Gamers can literally “see” all that power firsthand. Dual graphics cards and beyond 1080p gaming with immersive multi-display and 3D HD(3) capabilities allow gamers to experience any game at its best — as intended by the game developers.

– And the gaming desktops are intelligently designed for unparalleled customization. In addition to raw power, an innovative chassis design and intuitive internal component layout allows for user-friendly upgrades and optimized thermal management.

Purposeful Cool Design

Designed from the inside out with performance, function and style in mind, Alienware Aurora’s chassis delivers a purposeful internal layout in a sleek, beautiful and compact form factor.

The desktop’s maintenance-free, high performance CPU Liquid Cooling replaces the standard heat sink and fan that comes with most PCs, and its Active Venting system provides additional heat dissipation during heavy gaming. This unique design increases component longevity and allows Aurora to stay nearly twice as quiet as competitors with traditional heat sink and fan layouts. Additionally, all core components inside the Aurora are purposefully compartmentalized in chambers that provide clean, clear and easy tool-less access for upgrades, maintenance or showing off.

Supporting AMD CrossFireX technology, Alienware Aurora is capable of housing two graphics cards for maximum performance and extreme graphics power. All Aurora graphics cards use GDDR5 graphics memory(2), the most advanced offering available. With Microsoft’s DirectX 11 graphics API, complex virtual worlds will come alive.

“The PC gaming industry continues to grow rapidly, and our customers are demanding systems that can keep up with the most graphic-intensive games on the market,” said Arthur Lewis, vice president, Alienware and Product Management for Consumer, Small and Medium Business. “Alienware Aurora, our most advanced gaming desktop ever, delivers an experience that will exceed the expectations of any serious gamer.”

Complete Control

All Alienware laptops and desktops come complete with the Alienware Command Center, which provides intuitive, user-friendly access to exclusive applications and controls, including AlienFX lighting effects, Thermal Controls and AlienFusion power management system. AlienFX allows users to customize the exterior lighting zones on the chassis with over 25 billion color combinations for a one-of-a-kind personalized experience. Updates and new releases download directly into Command Center, creating a constantly evolving tool for users to modify and personalize their gaming computer.

Gaming Supremacy

Alienware is recognized throughout the industry and with customers alike for performance, functionality and design. The Alienware M17x gaming laptop with Intel Sandy Bridge processors recently won Gold in the Gaming category for “The Best Products of 2011″ from PC Magazine, and the Alienware M11x R3 laptop won Silver. As new technology is released, look for Alienware to continually offer the latest in PC gaming hardware, partnering with other industry leaders to deliver an optimized gaming experience.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dells-alienware-aurora-delivers-extreme-gaming-performance-and-experience-as-game-developers-intended-in-most-advanced-desktop-ever-2011-12-13

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Dell Resellers Pitch EHRs To Physicians

December 13th, 2011
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Dell has launched a new program to sell electronic health record (EHR) systems to physicians through value-added resellers (VARs), the traditional channels for marketing EHRs to small practices. Using a network of 30 VARs that will eventually expand to 100-150 middlemen, Dell is offering cloud-based EHRs from leading vendors along with its own hardware and services.

Dell already hosts ambulatory care EHRs for many hospitals that supply EHRs to their employed physicians or help community doctors acquire EHRs. The company also provides technical and implementation support so that hospital IT departments don’t have to become absorbed in that time-consuming work.

A year and a half after getting into this business, Dell is supporting EHR software and hardware for about 40,000 clinicians, said Sheila Moran, director of Dell’s channels program for healthcare and life sciences, in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare.

Dell embarked on its VAR program to sell directly to physicians who want to buy EHRs on their own. “The program is a way to extend our reach and support physicians who are not affiliated with a hospital and can’t look to a hospital for sponsorship of EHRs,” explained Cathie Hargett, a Dell spokeswoman.

The initial VARs are located in selected markets across the country. Dell plans to add resellers in additional markets over time, Moran said.
The VARs are hosting “a small but growing number of EHR applications,” she added, as part of the Dell package. Dell will continue to do the hosting for other applications and for the hospital-sponsored packages, she added.

Dell’s sales pitch is that it can remove much of the complexity of getting EHR software and hardware to work together properly. “That’s part of why it’s been so difficult for physicians to adopt EHRs,” Hargett said. “They’ve had to rely on the expertise in their organizations or themselves, or they’ve turned to the software vendor or the hardware vendor. We’ve developed an integrated bundle that Dell has already certified for use on all of the leading EHR software applications. That eliminates all of that complexity and those disconnects.”

Moran denied a report in CRN, a website for VARs and technology integrators, that some of the participating VARs won’t support non-Dell computers as part of the EHR package. “We’re not exclusive,” she said. “But we have a higher level of confidence with a tested stack [of equipment].”

Dell offers ambulatory-care EHRs from such well-known vendors as Allscripts, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, Epic, Greenway, Ingenix, NextGen, Practice Fusion, McKesson, and MEDITECH. While not all of the VARs have relationships with all of these vendors and vice versa, Moran said, “a lot of our partners have relationships with the major EHR vendors.”

Dell offers the VARs various kinds of marketing support, she added. “We’re supporting them with specialist physician account executives who are regionally based. The partners also have access to our expanded service capabilities.”

Source:http://informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/232300332

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Dell XPS 14z 14in Core i5 notebook

December 12th, 2011
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Don’t worry, the XPS 14z may be one of Dell’s new “thin and powerful” range, but it doesn’t fit into the superslim Ultrabook category so there’s absolutely no need whatsoever for a gratuitous comparison with Apple’s MacBook Air.

It’s certainly a more stylish affair than the businesslike hardware I’m used to seeing from Dell. The silver-grey aluminium casing and curved edges give it a very smart and classy look, and the 14in unit is just 23mm thick, even though it houses a slot-loading DVD drive. It’s not too heavy either, coming in at a whisker under 2kg.

Prices start at £799 for a model with a dual-core Core i5 processor running at 2.4GHz, 4GB of Ram and a 500GB hard disk, although the unit I tested had 6GB of memory, which bumps the price up to £849. There’s also a Core i7 model that costs £999. Dropping the hard drive and adding a 256GB SSD take the price to £1299.

All the models in the range are equipped with two GPUs: an processor-integrated Intel GMA HD 3000 and a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 520M with 1GB of its own VRam.

The stylish hardware design certainly makes a good first impression, but the Dell gets messy when you it on. Windows 7 boots quite quickly, but the screen then fills up with a plethora of bundled applications and utilities all demanding to be installed, registered and updated, or simply pestering you to do things like starting a back-up or connecting to next door’s wireless network. Some of us do still use wires, y’know.

Some of these programs were so persistent that I had to use the MSCONFIG utility to turn them off, and even then there were odd bits of software randomly – and annoyingly – popping up on screen the whole time I was testing the machine. OEMs, stick to what you’re good at, the hardware.

Thankfully, the user experience picked up after that. The 14in screen’s 1366 x 768 resolution provides a bright, sharp image and worked a treat when I was streaming some episodes of Merlin off BBC iPlayer. The large speakers on either side of the keyboard provide a decent volume too, although I did find the higher frequencies a bit harsh when playing noisy guitar stuff.

The compact design means that the keyboard looks a bit cramped – especially with those big speakers taking up so much space – but it turns out to be solidly built and comfortable to use. My only complaint here is that the trackpad isn’t all that sensitive and sometimes needs a firm prod in order to click and select items on screen.

The use of a Core i5 processor means there’s plenty of raw horsepower available, and the XPS 14z feels smooth and responsive in general use. But I wasn’t wild about the decision to stick the USB ports round the back of the unit.

The two GPUs mean that you can use the integrated graphics in order to maximise battery life, or switch to the faster GeForce when you need extra performance for gaming or Photoshoppery. It’s good to have that option, especially in a machine with a mid-range price such as this.

And Dell has implemented Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which automatically decides which GPU is appropriate for the task at hand and switches smoothly between the chips.

The downside is that Nvidia’s software maintains a list of which apps require each GPU. But its possible to override Optimus using the Nvidia control panel. I fired up Far Cry 2 to see how the two chips compared. The integrated graphics produced a playable speed of 29f/s, while switching to Nvidia up that to 38f/s. I wouldn’t describe it as a full-blown gaming rig, but it’ll be more than adequate for casual gamers.

Battery life is decent too. Dell quotes an unusually precise six hours and 42 minutes on its website. I got almost exactly five hours when streaming Merlin off the BBC iPlayer, so lighter work such as web browsing and running productivity apps should give you closer to six hours.
Verdict

The Dell XPS 14z has one or two rough edges, but for the most part it’s very neatly designed and provides good, strong performance at a competitive price.

Source:http://www.reghardware.com/2011/12/12/review_dell_xps_14z_14inch_core_i5_notebook/

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