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The consumer market looms large for Mr. Dell. Consumers were traditionally an afterthought at Dell, which garners more than 80 percent of its sales from corporate customers. Home computer users generally had to settle for business computers that were tweaked a bit for the masses and were little more than bland, generic boxes.
But in recent years, consumers became picky. Where users once focused on price, processing speed and storage capacity, they now looked for stylish, well-designed machines as well — a trend common throughout the entire consumer electronics business, but one that was lost on Dell.
“On the consumer side, we’re drastically changing what we’re doing,” Mr. Dell says. “We’re only touching the surface of the opportunity now.”
Ronald G. Garriques, who joined Dell from Motorola in February, is guiding the change in Dell’s consumer strategy. Selling machines with more flair in retail stores is part of the plan, said Mr. Garriques, president of the global consumer group, a new position at Dell. But he suggests that Dell will take a hybrid approach, offering hardware options, extra features and services through its Dell.com site on machines that it also sells in stores.
Dell’s direct online relationship with customers, Mr. Garriques says, can help it develop services that link PCs, software and cellphones. To illustrate Dell’s thinking, he describes as a possibility a service that would allow parents to use Web maps and cellphone signals to track family members on the screen of a Dell PC in the kitchen. “With Dell’s direct-to-consumer model,” he says, “we can bring that as a solution to families.”
Such offerings, he says, don’t have to generate big profits on their own. “Great services sell a lot of devices that use those services,” says Mr. Garriques, noting how Apple’s iTunes music service has fed iPod sales.
Dell also hopes to offer services on hardware beyond PCs. Last month, the company agreed to buy Zing Systems, a Silicon Valley start-up that makes software for hand-held devices that manage and exchange entertainment wirelessly, without the need for a PC. Zing’s founder is Tim Bucher, a former product designer at Apple.
Stale design remains an issue, and something the company has to continue to address if it wants to lift consumer sales. It recently recruited designers from around the world and more than doubled the size of its design group, to 80, in the last year. Dell designers now speak of product “love” and “lust,” observes Ken Musgrave, the director of industrial design — a far cry from just a few years ago, when design always took a back seat to competitive pricing.
But in recent years, consumers became picky. Where users once focused on price, processing speed and storage capacity, they now looked for stylish, well-designed machines as well — a trend common throughout the entire consumer electronics business, but one that was lost on Dell.
“On the consumer side, we’re drastically changing what we’re doing,” Mr. Dell says. “We’re only touching the surface of the opportunity now.”
Ronald G. Garriques, who joined Dell from Motorola in February, is guiding the change in Dell’s consumer strategy. Selling machines with more flair in retail stores is part of the plan, said Mr. Garriques, president of the global consumer group, a new position at Dell. But he suggests that Dell will take a hybrid approach, offering hardware options, extra features and services through its Dell.com site on machines that it also sells in stores.
Dell’s direct online relationship with customers, Mr. Garriques says, can help it develop services that link PCs, software and cellphones. To illustrate Dell’s thinking, he describes as a possibility a service that would allow parents to use Web maps and cellphone signals to track family members on the screen of a Dell PC in the kitchen. “With Dell’s direct-to-consumer model,” he says, “we can bring that as a solution to families.”
Such offerings, he says, don’t have to generate big profits on their own. “Great services sell a lot of devices that use those services,” says Mr. Garriques, noting how Apple’s iTunes music service has fed iPod sales.
Dell also hopes to offer services on hardware beyond PCs. Last month, the company agreed to buy Zing Systems, a Silicon Valley start-up that makes software for hand-held devices that manage and exchange entertainment wirelessly, without the need for a PC. Zing’s founder is Tim Bucher, a former product designer at Apple.
Stale design remains an issue, and something the company has to continue to address if it wants to lift consumer sales. It recently recruited designers from around the world and more than doubled the size of its design group, to 80, in the last year. Dell designers now speak of product “love” and “lust,” observes Ken Musgrave, the director of industrial design — a far cry from just a few years ago, when design always took a back seat to competitive pricing.
Resistance is futile...
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