Android isn't good enough for Dell

[Bateluer]

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/10/1...ed-to-expectations-according-to-michael-dell/

According to Dell while speaking at the Dell World Conference today, Android as a mobile platform has not “developed to expectations.”

Yes, number one mobile OS in the world. Number One. Still not good enough for Dell. They're going to rock out with WP7 devices, with their single digit market share . . . because thats how they roll.

 

[Tom]

McDonalds is the number one restuarant in the world..

 

[Sheep]

Dell just wants to be unique by using an OS with a marketshare that's pretty similar to the marketshare of their phones. I say that as someone who actually likes what he's seen of WP7.

I guess unlike HTC, Samsung and other HW manufacturers, they can't afford to have more than one OS on their phones...wouldn't want to rock that boat too much.

 

[cheezy321]

Wal-Mart is the number one retail store in the world...

 

[poofyhairguy]

And Dell isn't good enough for Android.

Asus has figured out Android. So have Samsung. And they both compete with Dell in their main market as well with the same proficiency.

This is just Dell sucking up to MS to prepare for their future. A guy I know who works at Dell told me that Dell is VERY focused on Windows 8 tablets going forward for business users (in form factors similar to the current Transformer). With Nokia taking its place on MS's right hand as its preferred Windows Phone partner, Dell is making sure it remains the favorite PC producer as they feel mobile tablets are a short lived phase. Or at least they hope it is a phase, as they are terrible at it.

 

[kyrax12]

McDonalds is the number one restuarant in the world..

Bad comparison.

Considering how many mobile OS are in the market right now, using the O.S with the majority of the market share actually holds water. (Android)

 

[tdawg]

Highest market share != highest quality / best, and I say this as an Android user. Android is the #1 OS partly (you can argue what percentage "partly" refers to) because it is available on the most widespread hardware options, at varying price points. That said, perhaps if Dell wouldn't worry about crapifying the UI and just put stock android, unlocked, on a nice device, they'd have a fighting chance, but they don't want to do that and they aren't confident in their coding abilities.

 

[Bateluer]

McDonalds is the number one restuarant in the world..

Wal-Mart is the number one retail store in the world...

How many billions of dollars in sales per year? Number of customers that walk through those doors daily?

Two highly successful businesses.

 

[runawayprisoner]

I would argue that the number one OS in the world is not necessarily in development or in quality, which might be what Dell is referring to.

If it's about marketshare, then yes, Android is undoubtedly and indisputably the number one OS platform, but that doesn't mean whoever jumps into the market with an Android device will succeed.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I'm going to take a wild guess here and suggest M$ made Dell a deal they couldn't refuse. How much did it cost M$ to get Verizon to lock out Google search and go with Bing instead?

Follow the money!


Brian

 

[theeedude]

Dell adds no value, neither on software or hardware side. It's a dead duck.

 

[Slick5150]

Well. From a usability standpoint, WP7 IS better than Android. It has a fraction of the market share of course, but that doesn't speak to functionality. So it's not like they're wrong.

 

[Bateluer]

Well. From a usability standpoint, WP7 IS better than Android. It has a fraction of the market share of course, but that doesn't speak to functionality. So it's not like they're wrong.

Pure opinion. A faster UI doesn't make the device better, a number of people cannot stand the live tiles that WP7 uses. The tiles in Windows 8 have been one of most vocally lampooned 'features' as well.

Dell's following the money, Microsoft needs players to make WP7 devices. And without dropping truckloads of money on their door steps or filing a plethora of frivolous lawsuits, the handset makers wouldn't make WP7 devices after their first attempts had flat sales.

 

[bearxor]

Yes, number one mobile OS in the wo...hance for Dell to make a market impact there.

 

[Bateluer]

Just for clarification, at this point, iOS is the number one mobile OS in the world. Not the number one mobile phone OS in the world, but counting the installed base of iPads and iPod touch's puts iOS over the top in total installed base.

Market research firm discounted that a couple weeks back. The total number of all Android based devices, all versions, is greater than the combined numbers of iOS devices. iPod and iPads included. Obviously, there's a lot of junk devices in the Android totals though, not all of them are good or even decent devices.

But slightly more OT, I agree with Dell in this decision. Dell was too late to the Android game. The WP7 market is still kind of wide open though. There's more of a chance for Dell to make a market impact there.

Android, WP7, and iOS are all mobile OSs, with the most prominent products being smart phones. WP7 doesn't support tablets or PMPs, and my understanding is that it won't ever. Thats Win8. This means that if Dell makes a WP7 smartphone, its not just competing against WP7 smartphones, its competing against all the Android devices and the iPhone models. Not sure if I should count RIM as a serious competitor or not. Right now, there's not much reason to buy a WP7 handset over a high end Android or iPhone. The UI is smooth, but cumbersome and difficult to navigate compared to Android/iOS. It has fewer apps, and the phones don't boast specs on the level of high end Android or iP4/S models either. From a consumer perspective, why buy an WP7 device? XBL integration?

 

[Fire&Blood]

Still surprised with burning the bridge statement.

Good luck competing against the same kind competition that forced you out of Android, as if they aren't going to do the same thing in WP7.

Dell is welcome to prove me wrong but I don't see them making phones that can top the Titan or the Focus S.

Their lineup was tasteful and came at a good time but still didn't make an impact, it won't get any easier down the road unless WP7 decides to force out Android OEM's which would be a suicidal move in 2011/2012.

 

[Brian Stirling]

If you ask me the biggest problem Dell has had over the last 5-10 years or so is the utterly dismal customer service! I'd wager that much, though not all, of the market share lead they once had was lost due to a customer service function that appeared to have been outsourced to and outfit that outsourced it to another company that was looking to outsource it to someone else...

Would you buy a phone from Dell if your life depended on it?


Brian

 

[dougp]

Bat, you have a serious hard-on for Android. How do you know MS is paying Dell to go WP7 exclusive? Do you have proof? It couldn't possible have anything to do with the fact that it's easier to manufacture a WP7 device because of the limited hardware types, thus resulting in less programmers to work on drivers, custom interface, etc.?

 

[zerocool84]

Wal-Mart is the number one retail store in the world...

iPad is the number one tablet.

 

[Bateluer]

If you ask me the biggest problem Dell has had over the last 5-10 years or so is the utterly dismal customer service! I'd wager that much, though not all, of the market share lead they once had was lost due to a customer service function that appeared to have been outsourced to and outfit that outsourced it to another company that was looking to outsource it to someone else...

Would you buy a phone from Dell if your life depended on it?


Brian

Nope. There was a lot of buzz here about the Dell Venue Pro though, before it was released. Seems to have faded though. Bit of a gauge to see how a product is, there'll be a lot of hype on these forums about it. If 6 months after its released, people are still raving about it(SGS2), its probably a good product. If not, like with most WP7 phones, probably not such a good product.

Edit - Adding these here, was posted after I submitted the above.

Bat, you have a serious hard-on for Android. How do you know MS is paying Dell to go WP7 exclusive? Do you have proof? It couldn't possible have anything to do with the fact that it's easier to manufacture a WP7 device because of the limited hardware types, thus resulting in less programmers to work on drivers, custom interface, etc.?

Its speculation that MS provided financial incentive to Dell, as they did with Nokia. Would it surprise you if there was conclusive evidence that MS did? Since they have a history of using cold hard cash to incentivize firms to use their products.

On the second half of your statement, thats mostly bogus. If a manufacturer chooses to employ programmers to create a custom skin, that's something they are choosing to spend money on. Its not necessary and Android already has a very capable and fast UI. There's no real reason to skin it, aside from differentiating your product from your competitors. Also, Dell doesn't need to manufacture Android phones using SoCs from every vendor, they are perfectly capable of sticking to Qualcomm or TI exclusively to simplify their development as well. Android runs fine on both.

This is Michael Dell talking out of his behind and not having a clue what he's talking about. Its comical more than anything. But, we can turn this into another Android/WP7/iOS pissing contest.

 

[Fire&Blood]

If you ask me the biggest problem Dell has had over the last 5-10 years or so is the utterly dismal customer service! I'd wager that much, though not all, of the market share lead they once had was lost due to a customer service function that appeared to have been outsourced to and outfit that outsourced it to another company that was looking to outsource it to someone else...

Would you buy a phone from Dell if your life depended on it?

lol I have an old HTC Wizard somewhere around here so... no

It's true and Dell isn't capable of pushing out Android updates to begin with. They want to sail the calmer waters of WP7 that has a hardware governor so they take hardware out of the race, I get that.

I admit, streak was a nice novelty, especially at the time it was introduced but it wasn't a real phone, it was like an experiment using a flashy package slapped together instead of a carefully designed phone.

If they were interested, they could have maintained a presence using stock Android builds only, using Nexus builds for their niche market hardware.

 

[dougp]

Nope. There was a lot of buzz here about the Dell Venue Pro though, before it was released. Seems to have faded though. Bit of a gauge to see how a product is, there'll be a lot of hype on these forums about it. If 6 months after its released, people are still raving about it(SGS2), its probably a good product. If not, like with most WP7 phones, probably not such a good product.

Edit - Adding these here, was posted after I submitted the above.



Its speculation that MS provided financial incentive to Dell, as they did with Nokia. Would it surprise you if there was conclusive evidence that MS did? Since they have a history of using cold hard cash to incentivize firms to use their products.

On the second half of your statement, thats mostly bogus. If a manufacturer chooses to employ programmers to create a custom skin, that's something they are choosing to spend money on. Its not necessary and Android already has a very capable and fast UI. There's no real reason to skin it, aside from differentiating your product from your competitors. Also, Dell doesn't need to manufacture Android phones using SoCs from every vendor, they are perfectly capable of sticking to Qualcomm or TI exclusively to simplify their development as well. Android runs fine on both.

This is Michael Dell talking out of his behind and not having a clue what he's talking about. Its comical more than anything. But, we can turn this into another Android/WP7/iOS pissing contest.

The only one who's turning it into a pissing contest is you and your sucking off of the Android chode.

Don't be a jerk.
Moderator TheStu

 

[Bateluer]

The only one who's turning it into a pissing contest is you and your sucking off of the Android chode.

Ah, civility.

I state only facts. Always have.

 

[Deeko]

Its not just about overall market share -what about their own performance? Do you know anyone that bought the Dell android phones? Meanwhile the Venue Pro was very well received. I wouldn't be surprised if they sold more Venue Pros than Venues.

 

[Deeko]

On the second half of your statement, thats mostly bogus. If a manufacturer chooses to employ programmers to create a custom skin, that's something they are choosing to spend money on. Its not necessary and Android already has a very capable and fast UI. There's no real reason to skin it, aside from differentiating your product from your competitors. Also, Dell doesn't need to manufacture Android phones using SoCs from every vendor, they are perfectly capable of sticking to Qualcomm or TI exclusively to simplify their development as well. Android runs fine on both.

Its a simple fact the Google doesn't provide the same software support. Being a hardware company, I'm sure Dell would rather not do as much software work. Stick to your core competancy.