Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has implemented the Google Android operating system in a new mobile phone that they are launching in China and Brazil. China Mobile and Claro will be selling the Dell Mini 3 very soon. The Dell Mini 3 is the company’s first smartphone and the specs are mum for now.
Dell Inc. is releasing a new line of PCs that will rival the Apple Mac Mini. The Dell Zino HD will be available in green, blue, black, purple, orange, red, and pink. The boxes are 8″ x 8″ and run on AMD Athlon Dual-Core processors with a choice of Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Ubuntu Linux. The “HD” in Zino HD has to do with the HDMI port that comes with the PC. They can also come with a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. The black Zino HD with minimum features will run for about $230. The highest priced Zino HD will cost about $808 according to Wired.
This past Tuesday Michael Dell gave a talk about some of the products that Dell Inc. manufactures and his thoughts on Microsoft Vista. Mr. Dell said that many buyers are unhappy with netbooks because of slow performance and small screens.
“Take a user who’s used to a 15-inch notebook and then give him a 10-inch netbook,” stated Dell at the talk as pointed out by the Standard. “He’ll say ‘Oh, this is so cool, it’s so lightweight.’ Then 36 hours later he’ll say the screen’s not big enough, give me my 15-inch back.”
Dell Inc. sells several types of netbooks including the Dell Mini.
Michael Dell also took the time to point out Windows Vista flaws, but added the positive results of Windows 7. Mr. Dell blamed Microsoft for some of the PC manufacturing company’s problems with sales. He added that Windows Vista hurt the company’s image and caused a backlash. Dell restored XP as an option back in April and charges consumers $150 for operating system downgrades. But Windows 7 has been showing signs of promise. “If you get the latest processor technology and you get Windows 7 and Office 2010, you will love your PC again,” Dell added. “And we actually have not been able to say that for a long time.”
The state of North Carolina must not be too happy with Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). As I write this article, I am sitting at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business in Durham, NC while on “vacation.” My cousin told me that many of his fellow MBA classmates visited the facility last year as part of an Operations class too. Ouch, sorry to hear the news North Carolina, but all of us are feeling the ruthlessness of the recession especially in the state of Michigan where I am visiting from.
When the Dell plant was first opened, politicians and analysts predicted that there would $300 million generated in state and local inducements. The plant was supposed to employ 1,500 people, create 500 related jobs, and even have a $24.5 billion impact over the next 20 years according to politicians. Instead the plant will shut down in the next four months.
Based in Round Rock, Texas Dell decided to shut down the facility as a plan to simplify their operations. Dell’s goal is to save $4 billion this year and another $4 billion next year. The company sold a remanufacturing plant in Tennessee this past June and is moving an operations facility from Ireland to Poland.
Allen Joines, the mayor of Winston-Salem said that Dell will pay back all of the money the city provided them with upfront costs and other incentive payments. Other major companies based in Winston-Salem include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., TW Garner Food Company, and HanesBrands Inc.
Dell, AT&T, and Google are in a partnership to launch a smartphone, powered by Google Android next year according to The Wall Street Journal. AT&T would become the fourth major U.S. telecommunications company to sell a smartphone powered by Android.
Clearly this is an interesting turn because AT&T is exclusively selling the Apple iPhone in the U.S.. By selling smartphones powered by Android, that gives more choice to AT&T customers which essentially is not a good thing for Apple.
Google first announced the Android operating system in 2007 and launched it on about 9 smartphones since. Given that Dell does not have much experience in developing smartphones, all the companies involved have to be careful in making sure nothing goes awry.
Thus far Motorola, HTC, and Samsung have launched Android mobile phones. Nokia is rumored to be launching Android on a netbook too. Motorola launched a custom version of the Google Android operating system called Motoblur. The phone is expected to launch the vote in early 2010.
This past Wednesday, the U.S. securities regulator charged Reza Saleh for insider trading in Dell’s acquisition of Perot Systems. Saleh made $8.6 million in profits by purchasing stock options ahead of the acquisition deal. Saleh sold them when Perot Systems stock soared on the day of the deal.
Saleh learned about the upcoming deal when working for a Perot Systems-related company. Perot Systems was bought out for $3.9 billion. The SEC filed a complaint with a federal court in Texas to freeze Saleh’s assets.
Saleh bought 9,000 Perot Systems call options at the time of the insider trading scheme. Saleh also told a Perot director that he knew about the deal when he was trading.
At the Tokyo Game Show, Dell subsidiary Alienware announced new products in the M- line of laptops, Aurora line of desktops, and Area-51 line of desktops. The company stopped selling the Area-51 m15x, except in the refurbished section. The Area-51 X58 desktop was discounted as of today. And now the company has launched a new laptop called the M15x along with dual-GPU systems Aurora / Aurora ALX desktops. The company also launched a new website called AllPowerful.com that forwards you to the product page on the Dell website.
The starting price of the m15x is $1,499. Specs include:
-15.6″ WideHD+ 1600×900 (900p) WLED display
- 3GB of DDR3 memory at 1066MHz
- 250GB SATAII 7,200 RPM hard drive
- 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
- Internal high-definition 5.1 surround sound audio
- Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
- Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode 6MB Cache)
The starting price of the Alienware Aurora is $1,299. Specs include:
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor. Overclocking options available.
- Single 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 58701 – DirectX 11 Enabled! Dual card options available.
- Up to 24GB Dual Triple-Channel 1333MHz DDR3.
- 7,200RPM Hard Drives – 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, 1TB. SSD and RAID options available.
The starting price of the Alienware Aurora ALX is $2,299. Specs include:
- Intel Core i7 975 3.33GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor. Overclocking options available.
- Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling.
- Dual 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 192 Core – SLI Enabled.
- Up to 24GB Dual Triple-Channel 1333MHz DDR3.
- 7,200RPM Hard Drives – 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, 1TB. SSD and RAID options available.
Henry Ross Perot started a company called Electronic Data Systems in 1962 and then sold it to General Motors. EDS was responsible for General Motor’s IT services. Then EDS was bought out by Hewlett Packard for $13.9 billion in May 2008. Another one of Ross Perot’s company has been acquired today called Perot Systems. Perot Systems was founded in 1988 and has been sold to Dell Inc. for $3.9 billion.
All of the biggest PC manufacturing companies has a strong branch of consulting arms. IBM Global Services makes about $58.9 billion. Between HP and EDS’ collective business services, they made about $38 billion as of 2007. And Dell’s Perot Systems made about $2.8 billion in 2008 revenues.
Based on how many shares Perot Systems has on the market, Dell will be buying them each at $30 per share. This is a 67% premium based on Perot Systems’ stock price on Friday of $17.91. The deal is expected to close during Q4 of Dell’s fiscal year. Perot Systems will continue to operate in Plano, Texas. Dell itself is based in Round Rock, Texas which is less than 250 miles away.
Dell is showing off an ultra-thin laptop on the website AdamoByDell.com/XPS. The Adamo XPS is a 9.99 mm design concept and probably fits in a yellow envelope just like the MacBook Air. Like Engadget, we hope that this concept does not have to use an Atom processor like a netbook.
Dell decided to stop the production of the Mini 12, but the company recently announced that they will be selling a computer over 10-inches again. The Dell Inspiron 11z weighs 3 lbs., has an Intel 1.2GHz Celeron 723 processor, 1,366×768 LED resolution, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB (5400RPM) SATA hard drive, GS45 integrated graphics, WiFi, and 3 cell battery. The webcam is 1.3 megapixel and there are twin stereo speakers. Some of the built-in ports include Ethernet, three USB slots, 3-in-1 multicard reader, and HDMI input. The laptop costs $399.
Dell Vostro All-In-One has already shipped in China and Japan. The Dell Vostro has a 19″ display. The computer has VESA mounting compatibility or an arm-stand. Now Dell has started shipping the computer to North America.
The factory model has a 2.6GHz Pentium dual-core CPU with 2GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive. The computer has Windows Vista built in and has an integrated DVD player. The Vostro also has a built in webcam with 1.3 megapixels. There is an integrated DVD player built in too. The computer comes with a gigabit Ethernet connection, standard WiFI, and a GMA X4500 graphics processor.
The price of the factory Vostro is $599 after $30 online instant savings. The computer can go up to about $909 with higher-end options. The arm stand itself is $90.
Within the next couple of days, Dell will be launching a mobile phone. The phone will be powered by the Google Android operating system. Since the operating system is open source, this will save the Chinese customers some money. The news about an Android-powered Dell phone has been rumored since April.
The provider of the phone service will be China Mobile. And the phone is expected to be called the Ophone mini3i. Given the word mini is in the name, I have a strong belief that the phone will be miniature.
Rumor has it that Dell is also working with Google Android on a tablet PC. But there is another rumor that Dell is working on their own proprietary operating system while partnering with software company Red Office.
The Dell Ophone mini3i phone is expected to operate similarly to the iPhone. The phone will have a touchscreen and will not have a physical keyboard. Lenovo and Dopod are also expected to launch Ophones of their own in the next several days. All Ophones will have TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). This means the phone will not work outside of China, unless hacked of course.
The Dell Latitude Z600 has just been approved by the government. Images of the device leaked on the Internet this past June and based on those pictures, it was quite easy to identify the device on the FCC website. The notebook is expected to be 15″ and will be powered by an Intel Centrino processor. Other specs of the Z600 include a fingerprint scanner, webcam, USB 2.0, WiFi, Bluetooth, and ethernet port. There is no official release date for the laptop yet. The external photos and user guide is not going to be released until October 25th.
Dell is now shutting the production down of the Mini 12. Dell recently also decided to cut the production of the Mini 9. This was discovered by an Engadget tipster who noticed that these netbooks were no longer appearing on the Mini section of the Dell.com website.
The Dell Mini 10 and Mini 10v netbooks will soon have the option to have a TV tuner built-in. Dell is currently working on bringing this product to the market, but it will have the low price of about $50 when being added to the order. The $50 includes an external antenna.
