***-->The Official Dell Adamo Thread<--***

Well that's what the Adamo was hailed as by the press, a MBA killer. Bit of a blunder there really. Over-hyped. Unfortunately done so by press other than the official word from Dell.

 

What is going to have to happen..is Dell is going to have to:
regroup, rethink, and revise things....and they are going to have to do it quickly.

I would love to see their first week sales totals. We shall see what the upcoming weeks bring.


Cin

 

They should try not mentioning the Air, or people will know not to get this lol...

 

Yup....but..then again, I think a fast and swift *reality check*, is very much needed for Dell right now. lulz.

Perhap's a swift kick in the *you know where* too, might help....
(pun, intended).


Cin

 

I'd like to see Adamo sales against the LG Prada edition phone sales. At least then they'd have a fighting chance versus single digit numbers!

 

I don't think it's going to be that bad. Keep in mind that the average laptop buyer is not at the same level of technical sophistication as the typical member of these forums here. If specs sound like Chinese to the average American, people can still be enticed to buy on looks alone, at least those people that have more money than good sense. When the machine is performing sluggishly, the sales person will just blame it on Vista, and everybody's happy...

 

hahahaha so true
+1 rep power for making me laugh at 6:40 AM

 

I agree...but I also think the average consumer is more likely to be deterred by the price tag than the specs...(which again is a testimony to the lack of regard they may have for the specs as you mentioned).

Either way, if the sales are mediocre I hope dell doesn't masquerade around with those numbers as a success story and stay in denial. Some of the reaction and sentiments from forums like this ought to be getting to dell? or I hope so.

 

Funny but so true

 

I think the high price will eliminate much of this group of laptop buyer. If they are willing to spend, they are probably already thinking MacBook. If they are looking to save, well no need to look at Adamo at all.

 

Makes me wonder how much it actually cost to make one...

 

Probably not alot. Markups...sometimes are 90% on things. So...yeah...

I have a friend who is an Optician, and he said that Glass Frames are marked up incredibly. Like those designer frames you see for say $300, they get for maybe $30 - $40, and price accordingly.


Cin

 

LOL my dad owns an optical practice. I think he gets some frames for $5 and marks up up to $50
And others he gets for $30 and marks up to around $300 I think. But he buys them in mass quantities. Do you want to buy a few thousand frames for $5 each?

 

im guessing at least $700-$800 if it costs $2,000 to buy one

 

Well then, Dell should be selling them for $1200 if they want to make a profit. That's the way I look at it, if they cost Dell say $800 to make..sell for $1200, then they can profit $400 per lappy.

That's my thinking though....


Cin

 

Dell alienates another potential group of customers with outrageous pricing.
WOW! Now that's different
Great looking,specs are OK(nothing to get excited over)but in my own humble opinion,way overpriced.
Great job DELL!

 

so long for the wait yet....so big of a disappointment. yes i am talking about the price.

About the mark up and the cost to make one, even if you buy one at the price of 3k, it is still considered cheap. Why? because in the process of making one, Dell has to spend time and money on R&D. It has to pay millions to engineers and others to make this happen. So, owning a piece of this for 3k is still considered cheap...but, this is a mass-production case, so 3k is unacceptable. I think some of the reason the price is so high is that:
1, 128GB SSD, dell uses this to increase overall system performance. This thing should cost around....500-800 (not sure though)
2, Dell set the price this high on purpose, so later on they can decrease the price and call it "discount". This is a very common trick when running a business, you set the price higher than normal, then lower it down to the appropriate price and call it a discount without slashing the system's price
3, come on, some of us are rich! lol

 

That's right, only Apple & Sony has the right to charge a "premium", certainly not Dell. What were they thinking when they tried to enter the :style over substance" market?

Well, actually the Sony VAIO Z is style & substance, so maybe Dell should improve the specs with the first revision. So basically they're just getting their feet wet in the market I mentioned above.

 

Anyone want take some guesstimates on when we see a nice *reduction in price*.....


Cin

 

With the SSD, any price reduction probably won't be that big. If sales are awful, they'll probably just discontinue the line in the next few months & cancel future models like the Adamo 16.

Then again if you don't want a MBA/MB, but want something that people at the local coffee shop will think was manufactured by Apple & stare at accordingly, has the same feel in build-quality as a MBA/MB, what other options do you have that also includes good customer service? That's probably Dell's reasoning behind introducing a premium line to compete with Apple & Sony.

 

Well...I think it would foreseeable failure if they even went for a Adamo 16...according to what we are seeing now.

We never know what Dell will do anyways. Who knows, we may get a surprise with pricing, but moving forward probably not.

Cin

 

I don't think they will cancel the Adamo line, no matter how bad the sales. Dell seems pretty interested in entering the luxury segment so I'm sure they have prepared for the possibility of taking a loss at the beginning.

After they establish the Adamo name with some better products, it will very likely end up as their highest margin segment. So in the future it could be quite profitable. Dell will need more competitive specs though. They should have focused on being the best priced luxury notebook on entry. They would have gotten more interest and sold more machines. Then after establishing a market they could have raised prices afterwards. Coming in more expensive than everybody else with lower specs AND no brand name established in that segment is really dumb.

 

Dell should higher you as their product advisor

 

I think Dell should've hired us all to be their product advisor, and pricing advocate on this one!

Cin

 

I second that notion!

 

Here's Dell's spin on the Adamo launch.

 

Thank you for linking it!

Ahhh....yeah. Go Dell!

Cin

 

Thanks for the Link!

After reading what they had to say I must actually admit they make quite a good case for themselves. I'm pleased about this official word from them though, it seems to make a lot of sense.

 

You think so? I don't. One has to wonder what they could mean by "high-end product" anyway; usually one would associate high-end performance with such a notion, however, if you look at what the Adamo actually is, then it is clearly an absolutely low-end product spec-wise, wrapped in a pretty shell. This kind of thing might be more aptly named a "luxury product", designed mostly for people with more money than good sense, that might value appearance above anything else.

The comparison to that useless luxury cell phone that has been mentioned in this thread several times is quite an apt one, I believe. The question then is, how large is the market for such a product, that is pretty but near-useless? The experience with that cell phone, again by comparison, is not exactly encouraging, in particular for a mass-producer like Dell. Thus I continue to wonder, what have they been thinking??? I would be very, very surprised if this Adamo turns out to be a success. If it doesn't, then whatever case you think Dell has been making for themselves was not grounded in reality. I think the latter is the case.

 

Well, we'll find out if Dell is crazy or crazy like a fox in the coming months. To be honest, I might be tempted to be crazy myself. It does look good.

 

A hefty, price cut...who know's..maybe someone on the forum will actualy order!


Cin

 

Already have, just sent the message to my business rep.

 

Grat's if you ordered! I hope you got a really good deal...If you don't mind sharing your specs, and pricing we would love to see it!!!

When is your ESD?

Cin

 

Hi guys. New to the forum.

I ordered one on the 17th. The shipping date is late April (?). *sigh* I got the 2 gig version with DVD burner, case, and Office. Final price was $2500.

I guess with Onlive, this could be a gaming PC.

 

Actually ordered 3.

The systems are the white "Desire" models with 3-year CompleteCare & Adamo Premium Service and the white sleeve. No external optical or external hard drives as I bought the external drive for my E4200 and never used it beyond an initial test to verify that it worked.

Estimated date on the notebooks is 5/1/2009 but my rep said the internal word is actually only supposed to be 28 days.

As to price, there are not supposed to be any discounts on Adamo systems right now but I received one for the insane number of issues I've had with the E4200 (and, probably in part, due to the high price I paid for it). I won't go into the details of that discount because it wouldn't be offered to others. Let's just say that I paid slightly less than I did for my E4200 at launch for a machine with slightly better specs (slightly larger screen, WWAN, which I added after the fact to the E4200, 4GB of RAM instead of 3GB).

 

Weird. They changed my order due to a "backend issue" and had to reorder it. What is going on?

 

Hey! Welcome to the forum, and grat's on your order! *cough*
That's a huge chunk of change!..Regardless, if it works for you..that's great! I think you will be very pleased!

That's sweet! Congrat's...I hope they work out for you!

I had a nice conversation with one of the higher ups from Dell the other day, after they received the e-mail I sent regarding the pricing on the Adamo, and such. Still waiting to hear further feedback as to the result from that convo

There is probably is a delay on a part or something. You can ask your Rep directly what the issue is, and they should be able to tell you!


Cin

 

Well actually I was quite pleased that they were being quite positive about it (although they had to really didn't they lol). More than anything I was confused as to exactly what they were thinking by launching the Adamo like they did and many of my questions were answered. So i was pleased about that and it made me feel like they actually have some sort of strategy.

And not to seem ridiculous here pirx but weren't you complaining about everyone whining about this product earlier in this thread? Watch you dont fall into that same group!!

Ooh and also those of you who have ordered i wish you much happiness with them. Would be awesome to know how they work out for you. They are very yummy laptops indeed, luckyyy

 

I really want one of these. They have all the specs I need for what I do. I have another machine for monster apps. This would be perfect for around the house and traveling...

 

So, are ou going to order then? If you have EPP..you can get it a *bit* cheaper, not much...but it helps.


Cin

 

What is EPP??? I am going to wait till 7 and the next gen chipsets. I just saw the new 7 touch screen vids and now I want a touch screen. I may just bite the bullet and get a Adamo later this year.

 

EPP = Employee Purchase Program..A program with set discounts (normally 7%) thru your employer, school, or govt. local program!

It's a separate site, nearly mirroring the Dell home site, but with *special pricing*

Aaah...go for the touch screen! Those are pretty cool! Then, the Adamo will prob's have come down much more in price!

Cin

 

Dell must be having enormous problems with this release. My order delivery dates keep on being moved back (for the DVD addon and computer).

4/7 for the DVD addon
5/5 for the computer

Edit: Ugh. They just sent me an email asking if I want to continue with the DVD addon order.

 

Woah! I love it...all this waiting and planning for the Adamo, and Dell still has part delay problems!!

Call your rep..and tell him/her you would still like to keep your order, but are semi dissapointed that Dell did not prepare ahead for this *elite* lappy. And, that you would like to know what they are going to do for you..to keep your order intact..This is a *premium* laptop, after all.

You may be able to get some e-coupons out of this or something.

Cin

 

Annnddd...now the case has been delayed as well.

 

Why? What is their reasoning? Is it due to the delay on the parts?

I would be a bit peeved at this. The fact that they are already having delays on a *premium* notebook, that they *praised* so highly.

Kudos...Dell..Charge $2K, and not be able to come thru on orders...


Cin

 

I really want to see Dell succeed with the Adamo - but it doesn't appear that Dell is firing on all cylinders with this launch. I sure hope they're about to pull a rabbit out of their hat.

 

I wanted to see them succeed at this, too. They should have planned ahead for any and all potential delays and problems with the Adamo.

Obviously, they didn't.

They need to turn around on this one, and quickly...


Cin

 

Cin can you order your adomo already? get rid of that *old* m1530

 

I remember years ago how reliable & prompt Dell was with their desktops & accessories. Since they shifted all of their production of notebooks to Asian companies who are probably biting off more than they can chew, waiting is the norm as is minor/major issues once many of them arrive after being rushed out the door of the busy factory putting them together, Let's hope every Adamo going out the door get more scrutiny than some of Dell's other models.