Is Dell's laptop line to large?

Something I have noticed is that the Dell laptop lineup is growing and it really must be hard for the average consumer to figure out which one is right for them. You look on the home site and you got the Inspiron (1525, 1420, 1720) and possibly the 1520 if they still sell that as a XP laptop option. Then you got the odd numbered AMD-based laptops. Then you got the new Inspiron 13, the new Studio lineup. Then of course you got the XPS M1330/M1530. And then you got their gaming laptop the M1730. Then you got the small business site which has three seperate laptop lineups of it's own. The Vostro line alone has 2 different 17" laptops and 2 different 15.4" laptops plus a few others. Then you got the more hardcore buisness lineup the Latitude lineup featuring 8 models of various. Then you got the Precision lineup. Oh and Dell's small biz site sells the XPS laptops too.

Oh and they of course own Alienware now too which adds even more laptops to the lineup.

If a customer was looking for a laptop with a 15.4" they would have 9 options from Dell alone and that's not counting whatever laptops they sell under the Alienware brand. Sometimes a wide product range is good, but when it is too wide it can just end up being confusing for customers. I mean do I really need 9 different 15.4" laptop options from one company?

 

I think it's okay.

Take HP for example,

15.4 models
DV5T/z
DV6700t/special
HP8510P/W
That's 6 alone coming from HP's website.
That's not including the huge number of 6XXXt/z models available through retail as well as the Compaq models.

Lenovo has the
T61p
T61
Y510
Y530 (announced, but not out yet)
R61e
R61i
R61
3000 n200
SL500


While the lines do blur somewhat, most of these are relatively different. The Inspiron are the cheap/consumer models, the XPS the entertainment/gaming/ the Vostro/budget business Latitude/ moderate business Precision/ performance business.

 

Dell's is by far the largest. HP doesn't really count since they're going through a transition - the dv5t is clearly replacing the dv6000t and the dv5z is clearly replacing the dv6000z. You can't really count "all the retail models" since it's really just one model, spec'ed out differently. Thus, HP has 4 true variations - the budget Compaq, the mainstream Pavilions, the business HP-Compaqs, and the boutique Voodoo.

Compare that to Dell who has the budget Inspirons, the mainstream Studios, the "elite" XPS series, the budget business Vostros, the mainstream business Latitudes, the top-end business Precisions, and the boutique Alienwares, and yes, Dell does have quite a bloated lineup.

 

While dell touts its "customization", the issue with the way too many models is the lack of customization that people can't just pick their own specs from a wide array of parts. Instead, they are heavily limited by w/e dell decides to make available. This is mostly because dell wants to charge an even bigger premium on the upper end parts *cough* xps *cough*

 

Yeah! How dare they try to make a profit...

 

but the worst thing is that dell has like dozens of configuration PER model, making comparing prices a little harder... so if a consumer doesnt know or doesnt spend time comparing each config, the consumer loses out ...

besides, i know a lot of people who just waltz into bestbuy, look at a particular model and just buy the pre-configed model and get the laptop immediately, instead of us people waiting online to config our own model

 

No ASUS takes the cake. The have 50 notebook models and upcoming they'll have 23 versions of the Eee PC.

 

The eeePC is like a Ford Mustang. There are 50 different 'editions' that all do the same thing.

 

Yeah, on different parts of the Dell website I was able to get very different prices with different configurations, coupons, and of course they sell the XPS M1530 on both home and small biz. Oh and if you click on the special deals banners they sometimes have those link you to a whole another configurator with different prices. Some you can use coupons, some you can't. Some of the configurators make you buy certain things (such as 4GB of ram, or the 9 cell battery, or the WUXGA screen) but save you money on those things at the same time, but if you don't want them then your screwed.

 

And Dell's laptop lineup grows even larger:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/29/dells-new-latitude-e-series-for-suits-detailed-by-elaborate-pow/

 

The Vostros 'business' laptops are a cruel joke. Small business, the target of the Vostro line, really should be buying the Latitudes for their durability, especially since most small businesses do not have IT departments or spare laptops kicking around with which to swap when their Vostro dies. If anything, the arguments for 'small businesses' buying Latitudes are even more compelling than the arguments why 'large' businesses should be buying Latitudes.

I know Dell has to compete at certain price points, and they need products to be competitive with their competition, but they hurt their own reputation when they, not so subtly, suggest that small businesses somehow should buying inferior products to large businesses who are sold the Latitude line on the Dell website.

 

My inspiron/vostro seems to hold up pretty well.