News Bits: Dell in Best Buy, Apple Ultraportable Reconfirmed, Windows on the OLPC

Dell to sell computers at Best Buy

Dell will start selling computers at retail store Best Buy in January. Best Buy will sell Dell's Inspiron and XPS notebooks and desktops at over 900 of its stores. Dell, which always used its direct sales business model, is now expanding into retail to better compete with rivals, especially HP which took over Dell's number one PC seller spot last year.

Read More (Forbes.com)


Apple ultraportable to be unveiled at Macworld

Apple will unveil its ultraportable MacBook Pro at Macworld in January. It has been predicted to be 50% thinner than the current MacBook and have flash memory instead of a hard drive.

Read More (CNNMoney.com)


Dell planning to launch Latitude XT tablet PC on the 11

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According to Engadget, a large number of reports have come in saying Dell's much anticipated Latitude XT tablet PC will arrive on Tuesday, December 11. See this article at our sister site, TabletPCReview.com, for more information on the Dell Latitude XT.

AMD Delays Barcelona again

AMD's energy-efficient Barcelona processor chip has been delayed yet again according to a report the company released Dec. 5. AMD says a technical problem has caused the delay; the glitch could cause the chip to fail. The delay has caused problems for server manufacturers, becuase they are not able to sell the products they designed to work with the processor. An updated version will arrive in January; in the mean time, AMD has prepared a workaround so the chip can be used until the glitch is fixed. AMD's quad-core Phenom chip has the same problem but AMD had implemented a workaround before the chip was shipped. For chip manufacturers, glitches like these are not uncommon according to Nathan Brookwood, a chip analyst at Insight64.

Read More (NYTimes.com)


Microsoft to put XP on the OLPC XO laptop

Microsoft is planning to test out its Windows XP operating system on the OLPC's XO laptop as early as next month. If the tests are successful, XP may appear on the XO laptop as early as the middle of 2008. Microsoft's James Utzschneider said in his blog that "Between Microsoft employees and third party contractors that we have brought into the effort, we have over 40 engineers working full-time on the port. We started the project around the beginning of the year and think it will be mid-2008 at the earliest before we could have a production-quality release." He later stated that Microsoft has no formal plans to support the XO under XP because the laptop was clearly not designed to run it. Microsoft's most prominent problem is that the XO lacks a hard drive.

Read More (Hexus.net)

Compal to raise notebook capacity to 25 million in Vietnam

Compal Electronics, the world's number 2 notebook manufacturer, wants to get 40 to 50 notebook PC component suppliers to build an industrial complex in Vietnam. Compal wants bring its production capacity in Vietnam to 25 million units within 5 years after commencing production there in 1Q 2009.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Microsoft Office 2007 SP1 coming Dec. 11

Microsoft is planning to release service pack 1 for its Office 2007 suite on Tuesday, Dec 11. Microsoft says that many of the improvements in the service pack are a direct result of customer feedback. SP1 will not be distributed via the Automatic Update Deployment so customers will have a chance to test it out before installing it on multiple systems.

Read More (DailyTech.com)

 

AMD is screwed. Hehehehe.

Dell in Best Buy is actually pretty interesting. This could bode well for their sales, since being able to compare with HP and Toshiba right next to each other could very well be the key in getting people to buy.

 

Dell might wanna lower the price a bit to boost sale. Sacrifice for the market share.

 

Clarification:

This is not the first time Dell has sold via retail outlets.

When Dell first started out, they were sold in various retail outlets including Price Club* (which is where i bought my first Dell).

*now Costco.

 

Hmm, interesting. I'm really interested in the Dell XT Tablet.

Also, being able to compare Dell to others like HP and Sony will be nice.

 

For the record I did not state it was the first time, I only said they were expanding into retail and that they always used to rely on their direct business model. Yes you are definitely right that they did not start in Best Buy.

 

wow dell is really gunning hard against its rivals. Next year should be an interesting year for notebooks.

 

Yes now Hp has to upgrade there notebooks to compete with Dell or else they will fall.

 

50% thinner than Macbook hopefully my school will have a good deal on those.

 

The rumoured Apple ultraportable being 50% the thickness of the current MacBook? That's like 0.5-0.6 inches! I'd love that.

 

Dell in Best Buy probably means the end of one of their other lines, It will be interesting, as they have recently been stocking a variety of Acer laptops, and we know that Acer just bought Gateway hmm..........

 

Its being said it will have a 13.3" screen? I said this before, that most laptop owners users have and are used to 15.4" laptops so 13.3" would seem "ultraportable" to them, thats a disgrace to the great name to call 13.3" monstrosities ultraportables

For it to be "ultraportable", needs to be 12" or less. Wonder what the price will be and will it use 2.5" or 1.8" drives, what capacity will the drives be, 32, 48, 64gb? What will the price be, Engadget said $1500, no way for those specs, ultraportables command a real premium.

 

To be in B&M, Dell better make their laptops look "nicer". Otherwise they might fall further behind HP.

 

Dell laptops are much nicer than HP already IMHO, just by picking up a 1520 and a 6500t right away I was sold on the former's quality. On the business side I do prefer the 8510 to the D630 though.

 

But in terms of style, HP definately wins. Dell isn't bad, but the glossy finish of the HP attracts people just as well as it attracts finger prints.

 

They probably did a bit of market research before making this decision, but at least at the BB I used to work at, Dell is screwed. Because Dell is the only brand that BB didn't sell, when an employee would make a negative comparison for a computer to a customer, they would make it against Dells. Thus all negative comparisons for computers were made against Dells. Dell pretty much became the model "crappy computer".

We did this so much that the employees here actually started to really personally hate Dells. It's actually pretty funny. So good luck to Dell trying to get its computers sold by people who ragged on them for a few years.

On the other hand, most computer recommendations were made based on whatever one was closest to me and easiest to point at so I guess it won't be that bad.

 

Yeah but most ppl are sold more on the looks and looks alone. Especially your regular or average joe.

 

aww AMD get your act together!

as for ultrathin macbooks lol that would be really thin haha..

dell on BB is a sign of the times, they used to be king on the direct selling and stuff now HP and others have actually caught up to them.

as for ultra portable. anything below 14.1 is ultraportable to me

 

Its all subjective, what your used to, since I love ultraportables so much, I define them as less than 12", 12" barely, barely, barely cutting it. Anything larger is a monster.

 

I'm wondering if the new Apple will have discrete graphics. If its a 13.3 or 14.1, (which, would be considered "ultraportable" for a MacBookPro), I can imagine it will. Maybe even 8600/8700. 8400 is more likely, I assume though. If its only an 8400, I'd probably be more inclined to purchase an Asus U series, though.

 

Will say it again , BB is NOT going to help DELL , only to make it worse .

Those who wanted DELL would have bought it for less direct with coupons , those who didn't wouldn't choose a fugly DELL over the nice looking HP standing next to it .

BB will want its cut and probably object to DELL offering its famous coupons for direct purchase so it will hurt the only thing left for DELL , its "low" pricing .

 

The next step for Apple is make a foldable notebook...

 

Gotta be more specific, because I have yet to find a notebook that does not fold.

 

Whatever. Even if Dell is losing market share in the consumer segment, they still OWN the complete Enterprise market. Government, private firms, public institutions, school, almost everyone has Dell. There are the exceptions, with the few running IBM severs and ThinkPads, but thats about it.

 

I can attest to this. We did this at my store as well, and Dell was ALWAYS the brand that was being compared as a bad unit. This was solely because BB didn't sell them at the time though. I'm curious to see how my old store manager still feels about Dell now....

Also, now that Dell is using BB as a retailer, I can just imagine all the whiny customers coming in complaining about how Dells website sells the laptop for cheaper then BB. Some people never learn. I'm so glad I left BB.

 

And Dell is still selling at Costco, has been for quite a while. They also sell a limited selection in Staples, so this just seems to be a continuation of that process. They may do the trick of selling different model numbers in B&M to prevent price matching to the website.

 

Agreed on the ultraportable part, and I'm hopeful this will be a nice tiny laptop. Regarding the physical size of the hd, it's likely it won't be any standard form factor given the small size of the laptop.

 

I couldn't agree more. One poster wrote that anything below 14.1" is ultraportable to him. In Japan on-the-go business people would almost consider a 14 inch notebook to be a desktop replacement, considering many of them are running around with 10.6" Panasonic R-series notebooks

And only looking at weight is not enough in my book. To classify as an ultraportable it would have to be a maximum of 12.1" (standard or widescreen) with a fairly small bezel/edge around the screen and weigh no more than 4 lbs with the largest battery.

In any event, I'm sure that even if the new Apple notebook will come with a 13 inch screen, it will still be very attractive. 50% thinner definitely sounds very promising.

On a slightly different note: Chaz, a heads up. The CNNMoney.com link goes to an article about the 3G iPhone. It seems they changed the contents.

 

Meh, most of them tend to be clueless or only buying the el-cheapo so I think it'll be all right.

 

I like Dell to come back and be #1.

But competition is all good for us.

 

Yes, it's quite funny that AMD is failing. As history has proved, having competition has been horrible for the consumer.

 

That's a bizarre statement to make given that HP has been dominating Dell of late:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4118

If anything, Dell is playing catch-up with HP.

 

I wouldn't say so. AMD was a proponent in helping motivate Intel out of the Pentium age, which was not a good period. Amazon's DRM-free music store caused Apple to lower iTunes Plus (DRM-free) tracks to $.99 each from $1.29 before. The new Zune 80 will probably motivate Apple to innovate more and possibly drop prices on iPods in the future. Competition is good, it helps drive innovation.

 

Your post makes no sense. Selling through Best Buy improves Dell's brand recognition and opens up a new revenue stream. This stream comprises shoppers who probably still prefer to go to brick-and-mortar stores rather than shop online. Dell is thus reaching out to customers who would otherwise never have thought about shopping at Dell.com, much less searching around for Dell coupons.

 

Your sarcasm meter should have detected my sarcasm.

I was trying to draw attention to schadenfreude-laden fanboys who revel in another company's failings. Having a company like AMD fail is bad for the consumer.

 

On the internet, whenever you're not sure, use a sarcasm tag (/sarcasm). Words can't convey your complex feelings unless it's blatantly obvious. And even then some people fail.

 

Ah, sorry . I don't easily detect sarcasm on the internet . You might want to consider using (:rolleyes:) if you want to make sure people interpret your post properly .

 

Are you being sarcastic?

 

Now this is just getting confusing .

 

I really dislike the Turion X2 in my notebook, first AMD notebook I've had and probably the last, definately getting Intel now.

What good would happen if AMD dropped completely off the map? I don't see anything. I hear their still decent in desktop CPUs though, probably better than in mobile CPUs, running all hot with mediocre to poor battery life.

All my attention is on Intel and Nvidia though.

 

Wait a minute...is Microsoft really putting Windows XP on the OLPC? But what about how much better, stable, secure, and useful Windows Vista is?! Oh noes! Looks like Microsoft is going to have to extend Windows XP's life even beyond what they currently say it will be right now. This is as big of an admission of Vista's problems as they'll ever give out. Hopefully those engineers aren't the same ones that worked on Vista.

I'm not sure if Dell in Best Buy stores is really going to help them. Dell has a lot of other negatives behind it. They've been digging their own grave for years now with their financial services and support options. They really need to reinvent their company. I don't think retail market share is going to make much of a difference especially when their systems are sitting next to much more attractive-looking competitors.

AMD...you've let yourself go, go, gone, and you took ATi with you.

 

if AMD drops off the map then intel would have no competition to drive them to be better. either AMD is gona make a come back or Intel will bury them, i remember there was one time when the turion was still brand new wayyyyy back it smoked intel to work harder! hopefully amd will catch up. ^^

as for now its doing what i need to do for a cheap price. ^^

 

I think it has more to do with the fact that Vista takes more system resources than the OLPC will have for a very long time. Vista was engineered for mainstream computers in 2008, XP was engineered for mainstream computers in 2003. Which do you think the OLPC is closer to?

Actually, I think XP itself is going to be kind of a stretch. Its not bad on the EEE (except for the complete decimation of hard drive space), since that is essentially (spec-wise at least) a smaller Sony TR3, but the OLPC does not have such good hardware.