Dell takes aim at Apple iPod yet again

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31 Jul 08 01:21 by Randomus in category Uncategorized To news archive

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An article recently published in The Wall Street Journal indicates Dell may possibly make a fool hearty attempt to launch a new digital music player aimed at competing with the Apple iPod, which owns more than 70 percent of the MP3 player market.

Dell’s latest attempt at a digital music player is said to be less than $100 and will use WiFi to connect to Dell PCs and notebooks and use the Dell music subscription service. It could be ready to ship as early as September, with the company likely to have a product available for the Christmas holiday shopping season.

The new music player will have a basic control buttons for scrolling through music play lists and an LCD navigation screen, but there are very few other details confirmed about Dell’s latest offering.

Assuming something comes to fruition, Dell will be able to rely on strong partnerships with Rhapsody and Pandora, and would likely be able to offer additional services outside of the Dell subscription service. It’s also plausible Dell would ship new PCs with its music software pre-installed, but the company has not confirmed whether or not it would do that.

Dell initially hopped into the music player market in 2003 with the DJ Ditty, but quit just three years later after securing only three percent of the market. The PC manufacturer also has launched attempts to create TVs and handheld computing products, but has found the most success staying in the PC and notebook consumer markets.

Apple is dominating the MP3 player market, with SanDisk and Creative also having success selling their products.

7 Comments

Wayne1003: Posts: 6; Posted on: 31 Jul 08 03:21

Wo-o, I am the first one to add comment to this. I like iPod, but I like more companies competing with Apple iPod. Dell may be great competitor for Apple on music player.

Hope Dell will own his own market of mp3 player like the Dell computor.

Blu-rayFreak: Posts: 228; Posted on: 31 Jul 08 04:13

Dell has no chance!

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 31 Jul 08 04:34

Woo I am the third one to add a comment to this (like it matter, Wayne).

I can't wait for Apple iPod to die. Apple's products have style and good interfaces. Unfortunately, their anal licensing schemes and near-complete inability to accept other people's products working with their own (what's that? Can't use OSX on any system other than Apple? May I ask why, when they are advertising Windows working on their machines?), and their obsession with protecting their products to the point of interfering more with customer's rights than those who pirate (of course, this is DRM in a nutshell). And dropping support for operating systems on newer versions of their software, BUT REQUIRING that new software for their newer players (forcing updates on iTunes). It makes me violently ill and I have vowed to avoid Apple-Anything. If that means I die cold and alone in a world built of iConcrete and everyone breathing iAir then I will still consider my life worth it.

Randomus: Posts: 1693; Posted on: 31 Jul 08 08:05

I'd like to see other companies throw their hats in the ring, but I don't think it matters who it is, because Apple will continue its dominance of the MP3 player market. It seems like SanDisk, Creative and others simply know that they are fighting for second place, and they are okay with it.

I remember when the DJ Ditty was released a few years ago, and I was horrified at what a horrible little MP3 player it was! Let's just hope that the company learned from its mistakes, and will make the MP3 player simple to use but still have all the features most of us expect out of our MP3 players...

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 31 Jul 08 19:29

Hey if you don't like Apple products, go buy that "fantastic" OS called Vista. Apple has every right to ensure quality by locking hardware to software which is why I buy their products. Oh and for the design. Look at this Dell thing- did Helen Keller design it? Ugh.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 01 Aug 08 01:12

Ho-hum. Yet another product that will only serve to throw in sharper relief the massive quality and appeal of Apple's iPod. The more people who throw their hats into the ring, the better the iPod looks.

SliderIQ: Posts: 2; Posted on: 01 Aug 08 18:57

This is a joke. As much as I would like someone to take on iPod (and Apple), this is NOT the product to do it.

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