Tablets are a 'fad' like netbooks, says Dell

Danny danny danny,
Consumer products are only a part of Dell now, corperate services and data center products are now huge, thanks to a grand strategy. If Dell ended it's consumer end (which it won't) it would still be a major player in the IT sector. They have accumulated and aligned some of the best products and services there are for data centers. From an industry point of view, apple stuff are personal/consumer toys/electronic pets, but you knew that.

The only reason netbooks were/are a bit of a fad was because every manufacturer used the atom with its intel's graphics, which can't even do plain HD.
And the few that had some better alternatives found those were not picked up by stores because they didn't have the 'atom' name and they were convinced people want that om netbooks.

Never forget that Michael Dell was the one who proclaimed once Steve Jobs came back to Apple that Jobs should liquidate the company and give all the money back to its shareholders.

Dell became such a shite company that Dell had to come out of retirement to save it. And still it just treads water being a lackey for Wintel.

Dell is just miffed that his Wintel overlords that give him sweetheart equipment and software deals can't come up with something to flog with his name on it as innovative as an ARM based, iOS Ipad that has helped Apple become the most valuable tech company in the world (above Google now) and second only to Exxon in total global valuation.

Maybe Dell should just liquidate his company and give all the money back to his shareholders and stop parroting Steve Ballmer...."The iPhone is an expensive toy that will go nowhere once Windows 7 mobile comes out"...."I promise Windows Mobile 7 iPad killer tablets by end of the year (July 2010).

I think that they're niche devices that are very well suited to some specific applications but the lack of flexibility make them pretty poorly suited for productive work. I need a keyboard, I'd prefer a mouse (but I think I could manage with a touchscreen), but they are really good for doctors to jot notes on, for using as quick reference devices, for reading PDFs (etc.). I'd actually like to have one of those netbooks with the swiveling screens that covert to a tablet, but a pure tablet would be frustratingly limited (especially an iPad).

Right now, people are so enamored that they're being greeted as a legitimate alternative to a laptop/netbook/etc., when they are really a legitimate tool for certain tasks. I have a feeling that they're going to be a joke in a few years, but only because people are treating them like they're magic.

That won't stop people from buying them. Cellphones and texting are fads and braindead consumers can't get enough of fads.

We're already getting there I believe with a tablet that docks into a keyboard, etc. The ideal worked towards is a 'laptop' that allows the 'screen' to detach, becoming a tablet. Of course, in reality, most of the gubbins would be in the 'screen' while the main body of the 'laptop' merely contains a keyboard, additional connectivity and extra drivespace

A large proportion of the population just do not need a computer so that's wat Dell wants us to believe.

Intel prefers to sell high value items so Apple stepped in to fill the niche and 'destroy the computer industry as we know it'.

At a cost of $50 to build a reasonable tablet, Intel, Dell and Microsoft are now 'damned if they do, damned if they don't'.

It may even bite Apple eventually too!

@Trolla Ferrari is correct in saying that journos, devs and graphics designers need a traditional computer.

Tablets are for consumers: they want e-mail, web surfing, game playing facebooking, chatting, etc., etc. Tablets give people this in a most convenient form. That's why tablets will dominate the marketplace: because most people are not techies and they don't type much, they simply want their go-anywhere computing.

I do think pads are a fad, but in the end it's something else to buy in a market saturated with cheap laptops that won't go obsolete and require replacement. So Dell will need to make products that are different (like tablets) so people will buy them because they're shiny and new, not having all the utility you'd ever need.

The corporate environment is about input more than output. When you are required to input a lot of data it calls for keyboard.

Now, in the consumer environment the PC and Windows OS are toast. Who wants to be bothered with maintaining a Windows machine with all the baggage that comes with it.

Apple started the revolution and I believe the Android OS will be a real problem for the micro serfs.

People still make lots of money on "fads" But you have to jump in at the beginning not the end. Sorry dell.

@Dopey
When you say "all the world", do you mean all of the 1%? :-)

I work at that company and have to disagree. Lame tablets are a fad. Tablets that we will see this fall are not. They will be business class tablets that you add a soft keyboard into your sleeve/bag when at home/on the road and you will dock like a laptop when in the office. (standing dock so it's an additional monitor) Missing an oppertunity is a sad thing, and it's to bad Dell will be late with this one.

I'm not sure you can really define them as a fad. Afterall "netbooks" existed as part of the market for at least a couple years before that name was applied to them in the form of the likes of the Sony TX and TZ series laptops. The same could somewhat be said for tablets which are basically super sized pda's/smartphones.

That said odds are their trendiness will pass, at least in the case of tablets. With the ever growing smartphone market where devices will generally do everything a tablet will just with a smaller screen they have little point, especially if in the future they design a system to link your smartphone to a larger touch display either via usb, wi-fi or bluetooth interface. This of course would require larger touchscreen displays to become a lot more common but it's one logical direction for the market to go. Of course there is also the possibility that the netbook market will be replaced by tablets similar to the Asus Transformer which have convertable docks that make a tablet into a netbook but I'd say that's unlikely until MS office and Windows lose their status as the defacto software for schools and businesses. Eitherway odds are the basic slate tablet that's all the rage right now will lose it's appeal within a few years.

There is something undoubtedly alluring about tablets, but I'm tempted to agree with Dell.

How many journos would want to write copy using nothing but the software keyboard on a tablet? How many devs would want to try writing code on one? How many graphics designers would give up their mouse completely?

The iPad has been very popular. Some (not all mind, the iPad is quite nice) of these sales are purely down to the strength of the Apple brand.

In five years we will still want a mouse and keyboard and Windows. Hell, I doubt it will have changed much in ten years.

Just a few more niche gadgets around.

It's taken Dell over a year to wake up and align itself with the Inq view of the world.

Thankfully, like the bumblebee that is supposed not to fly, the rest of the world is happily using their tablets or looking forward to the day when they can afford one. None of us need permission from the Inq-Dell nay-sayers, thank you very much :-))

THERE IS ONE LADY HERE IN THE OFFICE WHO GOT AN IPAD BUT NOW SHE HAS THE SHAME OF OWNING A CRUSTY OLD IPAD #1, NOT THE TRENDY NEW IPAD #2. ITS A WONDER SHE STILL BRINGS THAT SHAMEFUL THING INTO WORK.
(OUR INTERNET ACCESS AT WORK IS CONTROLLED, SO TO SURF ON TEA BREAK WITHOUT CONTROL, YOU NEED YOUR OWN 3G RADIO. LUCKILY I LEARNT HOW TO UTILIZE MY COMPANY-ISSUED BLACKBERRY AS A WIRELESS MODEM AND CAN SURF, FOR FREE, USING THAT WITH MY SHAMEFUL 2008 LAPTOP).
I AM SO HOPELESSLY OUT OF TOUCH WITH EVERYTHING, I WOULD HAVE TO BURN MY ENTIRE HOUSE AND ALL MY POSSESSIONS TO HAVE EVEN A HOPE OF GETTING BACK INTO TREND. EVEN AT THAT IT WOULD ONLY LAST A FEW SHORT WEEKS BEFORE I WAS OUT OF DATE ONCE MORE.
TO QUOTE NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: GOSH!