Dell is reportedly planning to introduce a new mp3 player for less than $100, and I want to know who asked for it.
I understand completely why Dell wants to do it.
Like every big consumer electronics company, it envisions a household in which a variety of high-tech gizmos download, play, and swap digital content sans wires. A quick Internet search would find the same basic strategy coming from Sony, Microsoft, HP, and Samsung. Apple has actually delivered it, somewhat, with its iPod/iTunes offering.
What ever happened to just making great products?
I know we're supposed to market to lifestyles these days, and that's why lots of what gets offered isn't just a product or service, but a system. Nothing is simple. Innovation is all about enhancing experience, and that means nuance and complexity. And brands can get attached to anything, right?
Or not. It bugs me that I have to jump through a work-around hoop to get my iTunes songs onto an unauthorized computer or my cell phone. But it certainly doesn't keep me up at night. Ditto for sharing a movie on my computer, or getting my family photos displayed on the big TV in the den.
Using a WiFi connection to then Bluetooth my emails to my backup server is, well, on my to-do list, for sure. Right after I learn to speak Swedish.
There's lots else that drives me nuts, though.
My computer battery doesn't seem to charge like it used to, but I have no idea what to do about it. I need a cord to connect my laptop to a set of speakers that I don't own yet. I know I can backup my cell phone contacts, but the way to do it isn't easy. VOIP makes sense, but hooking it up doesn't.
More fundamentally, I already own enough computer processing power -- between the desktops and laptops in my home -- to program space capsule trajectories to the Moon, yet most of it sits around unused. I possess immense computing capabilities but, like my brain, I only use a small portion of it.
So is this enhanced world of media connectivity the only vision Dell (or its competitors) could chase? Of course not. It's just the most obvious one.
Or not. Dell is in the computer hardware business and, more specifically, it makes the stuff cheaper than the competition. Why couldn't it choose to become the best and most robust enabler of applying that computer hardware to the real needs of individuals, families, and companies?
Skip all the multimedia connectivity nonsense, and simply provide reliable, cheap, service-agnostic versions of the tools that the other branded providers sell. Focus resources on connecting computers to everything else.
Here is just a sample of some dim bulb questions Dell could try to answer:
- Appliances: Why can't I use my computer to turn on/off my coffee maker, or connect to weather on the Internet for a smart alarm clock function?
- Safety: It's silly that I use imperfect motion detector attachments on my outside lights, or that my interiors aren't hooked up to a master controller
- Energy: You mean to tell me that there's not an easy way to use my computer to manage function/temp on my boiler and hot-water heater?
- Communications: Like I said earlier, where's the killer VOIP solution (i.e. iTunes/iPod for VOIP), or the computer-based answering service for my land line that connects to my contacts info?
Here's another idea: make the best, most reliable and service/supported devices. That would mean not outsourcing customer service so it can free up money to chase a marketplace that doesn't exist, and coming up with ways that buying a Dell meant never having to say that you're sorry.
It just seems to me that there's a wide-open market for useful, needed, computer-dependent devices and services. It might not be as sexy as connecting multimedia content, but it could be lots more profitable.
In fact, it might make for a new definition of a smart home that wasn't so dumb as the grand dreams of most consumer electronics companies.
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