Dell exec: Apple’s iPad will ultimately fail in the enterprise

107 Comments

“Speaking to CIO Australia in Sydney, Dell’s global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organisations, Andy Lark, said while the first iPad had achieved one million sales just 28 days after the device first became available in the US and precipitated the explosion in tablet PCs, it would ultimately fail in the enterprise,” Lisa Banks reports for CIO. “‘I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary,’ Lark said. ‘[Apple has] done a really nice job, they’ve got a great product, but the challenge they’ve got is that already Android is outpacing them.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Proof? None. Because Android tablets are not “outpacing” Apple’s iPad in any way, shape or form unless it’s a race to collect dust on store shelves.

Banks continues, “While Apple had entered the businesses as a consumer device, Lark claimed Dell had taken an enterprise approach toward tablet PCs, which would ultimately give the company, which has a major stake in Microsoft Windows and the desktop PC market, an edge. ‘We’ve taken a very considered approach to tablets, given that the vast majority of our business isn’t in the consumer space,’ he said.”

MacDailyNews Take: A very considered approach, as in: “We considered approaching Apple to ask them to kick our asses whenever the whim strikes, just like they did with iPod, iTunes, iTunes Store, high-end personal computers, and market cap, among other things, and found that we rather enjoyed it, so we’ve decided to ask for more of the same.”

Banks continues, “The cost of Apple products was another deterrent to iPad deployments, with Lark claiming that a the economics on a fully kitted iPad did not add up. ‘An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,’ he claimed. ‘That’s not feasible.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It’s good to see that Dell remains as committed as ever to employing the mentally handicapped.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike D.” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Commonwealth Bank upgrades Sydney employees; dumps Dell PCs for Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Airs – March 25, 2011
Survey: 82% of future tablet buyers planned on buying Apple iPad – before iPad 2 was even unveiled – March 10, 2011
Mossberg reviews Dell Streak 7: Impossible to recommend – February 10, 2011
Dell gives up competing in high-end with Apple, pulls plug on ‘Adamo’ lapflops – February 9, 2011
Apple now worth twelve times Dell’s market value – January 27, 2011
Apple’s revolutionary iOS crushes Google Android in the enterprise – January 26, 2011

107 Comments

    1. Feral, thankfully you have many choices, nowadays you may sell your soul and integrity to the Republican Party, Fox News, General Electric, and Koch Industries to name but a few organizations that Satan is using in his quest to collect more souls.

      Reply

      1. Even giving the kit an:
        iPad $830
        Apple wireless keyboard $70
        Apple magic trackpad $70
        Apple Smart Cover $80 (leather, its for business)
        That still leaves $450 for a bag to tote it all around in. Not likely. Corporate users will get a $29 Targus.

        I think he is trying to justify Dells price point for its best shot at a competing product.

        Reply

        3. Even if we assume he was using Aussie dollars, and drinking some of Dell Australia’s eucalyptus enriched “Koala-aid,” he would have a tough time reconciling his price with the truth.

  2. Wow – when they have to make up blatant lies which can be disproven almost trivially, you know they’re getting desperate.

    Sure, some clueless CIOs will drink Dell’s Kool-Aid here, but for the wider audience this sinks their credibility even further. (Though I suppose some would argue they have none left, so what do they have to lose?)

    Reply

  6. wow! Fortune telling from the company that gave us the amazing Dell Streak?

    Wired Dell Streak review:

    ” is a typical Dell affair: foolishly overdesigned in an attempt to stand out, and coming up short all around… It’s not just the worst tablet display I’ve ever seen, it’s the worst display of any kind I’ve seen since the dawn of the LCD screen…. We were aghast when it turned out that the tablet crapped out after a mere two hours (and three minutes!) of video watching… Mattel Football had a better screen. Dismal battery life. Crashed twice — once going dark for an hour — in the first day of testing.”

    dear lord almighty.

    Reply

    3. Exactly. I think the beauty of the iPad is that Apple has succeeded in delivering a device that is far better yet less expensive than what the competition can make.

      But unfortunately for the idiot competition, they’re still so stuck with “but it’s Apple, so it costs more”, that they have no idea how to combat it.

      Reply

    4. Let’s be fair…This dollar figure was probably in Australian dollars and they did mention a full fully loaded iPad so it would be 949 A$ minimum not counting the keyboard, case etc.

      Still, the man is bat shit if he thinks that some Dell offering would best the iPad2.

      Reply

  8. Face it, Mac losers, your days are numbered. First the Dell Streak will take… 20-25% of the low end of the market. Then our soon to be released yet unannounced high end Dell Tablets (known as Dellets™) will hit the market. After that, people in the business world and in the consumer market will flock back into the arms of high quality Dell products.

    Reply

    5. Care to buy new eyes from that (virtual) money?

      Your face scares me everytime I see those eyes. I shit bricks from that mono-eye. I guess if you ever need glasses, you only need ONE glas actually. 😀

      (yes, I know it’s not the real Micheal “So-Delusional-I-Would-Sell-Apple” Dell)

      Reply

    7. Seriously, Michael you can not call people “losers” when they are at the top of their game. Apple IS currently the world’s most successful tech company. Even your post hopes that someday people will flock back to Dell. For the time being they are winning.

      Reply

  9. Uhhh… since when do people use a mouse with an iPad?

    The maximum an iPad ($829) with case ($100) and keyboard ($70) would cost is $1000. Where did that $1500-$1600 number come from? What a load of crap.

    Reply

    2. Exactly, a mouse?!? iOS doesn’t even have a mouse pointer or the capacity to display one. You point with your freaking finger and I got one of those for free.
      Also, no company (no successful company anyway) is paying full retail for mass implementation of a product. The larger your order, tue bigger the discount. My guess is a large fortune 500 company, deploying these en mass, would be paying less then $800 each for a maxed out model even with a case and possibly a keyboard too.

      Reply

  12. uh, a case is around $60, an  wireless keyboard is $70, an  wireless mouse is $70, how does 60+70+70+499 = “An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600”?…Dell sucks donkey dongers.

    Reply

    2. Oh, that’s easy, see they show the serial number right after the name of the device, hence the Streak was the first fn the series, the Streak 7 the seventh. They are rumored to manufacture an eight unit just as soon as they have been able to sell the first 7.

      Reply

  15. He says an iPad with keyboard, mouse, and case will be $1500-$1600. Hmmm. Assuming the $829 iPad means he expects to spend on the low end $671 dollars on a keyboard, mouse (huh? iPad doesn’t use a mouse. He must be looking at a polyp in his colon and think it’s a mouse), and also a case.

    However I we must give him credit for being right when he says (admits): “the economics on a fully kitted iPad did not add up.” Yes Lark, you obviously don’t have a clue, after all your working for Dell dude.

    But not content to show his ignorance once he thinks it’s time for an encore: “closed, high price and proprietary,’
    Ah, the old Windoze party line, how quaint. Given the iPad is at most as much or cheaper than any other tablet makes this statement absurd, although we already established Lark to be “math challenged””.

    Poor Lark.

    Reply

    1. I always get a laugh when I hear people say how open Windows is. Being installed on a lot of machines doesn’t make you open, it makes you ubiquitous. Ubiquity != open. In fact seeing as how Windows is so incompatible (to be fair it’s more compatible then it used to be) with some many open standards, it’s far far less open then OS X.

      Reply

  17. I think the “Dell Streak” is another way of saying my white undies have tire marks, I believe. Since Dell and Ballmer have been in bed together for so long, it could also be what remains after a good Zune squirt…

    Reply

    2. +1

      It sounds like John c. Holmes has risen from the dead to provide these dickheads with such pornographic names. Streak? Squirt? What’s next, the Itty Bitty Titty 4″ tablet? The Long Dong Silver 14″ tablet? Will APPL buy out RIMM and come out with Steve’s Favorite, the RIMM Jobs?

      Reply

  20. To be fair, he was talking in Australia, and presumably was talking Aussie dollars. Oh, crap, Aussie dollars are almost the same as US dollars now. I guess he’s a moron.

    Reply

  23. ‘An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,’ he claimed.

    Well isn’t that interesting – he’s describing a netbook or a laptop, not a tablet. How’s that for stuck-in-a-rut thinking?

    Reply

  25. Well it is good to know that someone working at a ultimately failed company… Dell DJ, The Streak, at least has some expertise on the subject matter, however wrong he will end up being.

    Has MDN iCal’d this?

    And MDN… denigrating the mentally handicapped by lotting them to this dolt does a great disservice to them, indeed!

    Reply

  27. I knew the Bluetooth keyboard worked with the iPad, but I didn’t know that there were $600+ mice that worked with the iPad…
    Learn something new everyday I guess.

    $829 iPad with 3G
    $40 smart cover
    $30 clear back case (works with smart cover, protects the back)
    That leaves me $600-700 to spend on a keyboard/mouse setup.

    “I won’t say that all senior citizens who can’t master technology should be publicly flogged, but if we made an example of one or two, it might give the others incentive to try harder.” — Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory

    Reply

  28. Zaggmate’s iPad case with keyboard included: $100. Apple case $39 with Apple wireless keyboard: $69 = $108. From iPad 1 $350 to top of the line iPad 2 $829, add a case and keyboard is UNDER $1000. If you can’t beat them, lie about them…. If that doesn’t work call in a bomb scare.

    Reply

  29. Hey, MDN, that last comment was amlittle insensitive; don’t you think? Comparing this guy to the mentally handicapped is a bit of an insult… To the mentally handicapped..

    Reply

  30. A tablet is designed without a physical keyboard and mouse. If anyone needs that, mind as well buy a netbook!
    What give Dell the right to say this? They didn’t invent the tablet! Cheaplly made product makes me sick. Produce something with pride!

    Reply

  32. What was he doing? I mean he was just barking up the wrong three. IPad is not a threat to Dell. He should not be freaked out like that. It’s ambarassing. He looked really stupid, ain’t he?

    Reply

  33. I have to say, I’m constantly floored by the flat out untrue or just plain idiotic statements made by executives from many companies these days concerning the tablet market that Apple created. I have no idea how such clueless people become high paid executives at billion dollar+ firms.

    Reply

  35. Sure Dell has been hit hard by the global economic collapse, but they still know they’re bread and butter: Enterprise.

    Apple would do well to heed this warning. You’ve got to bring more than product to Enterprise; you’ve got to bring SOLUTIONS. Dell is keenly aware of this and it’s what will fuel their comeback. If Apple wishes to build a real platform underneath the house of cards their gadgets have built, they’ll listen to what the boys at Dell have to say to them. Good advice rarely comes free. And never twice.

    Reply

  38. While his keyboard example is ridiculous, please remember that it only took 3 years for Android to overtake the iPhone in market share. The same “could” happen with tablets. The main advantage other tablets will have is that they can be designed to not require a “real” computer to use them (without a Mac or Windows PC, the iPad is FAR less capable than with one).

    Apple’s current gambit is that you’re willing to buy both. But why should that be? The iPad can do 95% of what the vast majority of people use a computer for. Why should we need anything besides the iPad?

    If Apple would be willing to modify iOS so that it can run on its own as well as use peripherals (e.g., attach USB devices, print directly to printers) and come in larger sizes (can you say ’15” iPad’- see, I knew you could), they would own the tablet space as they own the MP3 space. But, as the iPhone has shown, it’s not yet a given that the iPad will remain dominant forever.

    Reply

    1. Zero need for USB devices on the iPad. Ever heard of wifi? Bluetooth?
      It amazes me how some people think that if there is no USB port… It’s not worth having. Or it’s somehow a detriment.
      And newsflash…. You CAN print from the iPad. And no…. Not only to cheap ass HP printers.
      The only reason android is even a player anymore, it’s free, it was everywhere. iPhone was AT&T only.
      It’s the same with cars, for every Mercedes out there, there is like 10 base model chevy’s.

      15″ iPad? Why? Just make the mbp screen touch, done.
      And just another FYI… Apple already does own the tablet space. The competitors fail every time they try and compete with the iPad.

      Reply

  41. $1500??? Let’s see, $799 for the most expensive one, plus a keyboard ($69) and a case ($20-50).
    What case is that guy using? Is it made from the skin of an endangered species? Siberian Tiger?

    Reply

  42. I think someone forgot to teach dip shite Andy Lark that if you’re going to FUD someone, you have to either use information that no one can verify, or you have to tell lies that are at least slightly believable.

    And I thought Marketing Morons had reached the bottom of the ethics bucket!!! Thank you Andy Lark for proving me wrong. It really is still possible to be a bigger jackass than today’s run-of-the-mill marketing parasite.

    Reply

  44. The Dell spokesperson has a bit of a struggle promoting a product list which includes the Streak, of which Wired comments: “Dell is fighting, and by that I mean it is intent on pouring money into what is obviously a hole of futility.”

    Reply

  45. Tommy Boy,

    And I would add to the list the Democrat Party, which now brings you an undeclared war on a small MidEast country, so Europe can have access to their oil. And these same people extending the evilnBush Tax Cuts, and continuing to run Guantanemo as a military prison with torture and illegal military tribunals. And of course they let GE make $5 billion in profits with zero taxes because their CEO schmoozes with the Community Organizer, who has brought you all the above, plus $4.50 per gallon gas.

    Reply

  51. Dell again making negetive comment about Apple. Some people just never learn from their mistakes/misspeak:
    http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/28418/

    “On October 6, 1997, in response to the question of what he’d do if he was in charge of Apple, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell stood before a crowd of several thousand IT executives and answered flippantly, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

    A little more than a month later, on November 10, 1997, new Apple Interim CEO (iCEO) Steve Jobs responded, speaking in front of an image of Michael Dell’s bulls-eye covered face, “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”

    Today (2010), Apple rose to hit a market value of $317.02 billion or more than 12 times that of Dell’s current $26.02 billion.

    • Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand ($57 billion) than Dell Inc. is worth (more than double, in fact).

    Reply

  52. There is usually a pattern to these sorts of comments by execs whose firms are getting the beat down from Apple:
    1) Their most outrageous and false statements are usually made somewhere far, far away in the world. Just goes to show how dumb they are to think that (a) people elsewhere in the world are stupid, and (b) that those comments will not come back to haunt them.
    2) The best way to deny that they are getting their butt kicked is to claim that they are not even competing in the same space (“Consumer market? Nah! We are bigger than that. We go for the E-N-T-E-R-P-R-I-S-E sector. So there!”)
    3) They always have a prophecy about Apple failing eventually/in the long run/in 2015/etc etc.
    4) When it comes to figures, they’ll “configure” things in a way which makes the figures look bad, as in a “fully-kitted iPad”. Dude, you’re stretching wildly here just to make the point that the iPad is a very expensive desktop – when it is not meant to be one in the majority of cases.

    Reply

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