“Dell is challenging Apple Computer’s iPod Mini music player, as part of a plan to expand its Dell brand name in the consumer electronics market,” John G. Spooner reports for CNET News.
“The Round Rock, Texas, PC maker on Thursday launched a diminutive Dell Digital Jukebox portable music player, the Dell Pocket DJ 5… which will sell for $199 and offer 5GB of storage [and] is likely to be compared to Apple’s 4GB, $249 iPod Mini. A trim 20GB Dell DJ will sell for $249, a drop of $30 from the price of Dell’s existing 20GB model. Dell believes that its relatively low prices on the music players… will help win over consumers.” Spooner reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yawn. Imagine waking up all excited on Christmas morning and opening a box with that thing in it? Where’s my iPod, Mom?! The only things the Dell Pocket DJ 5 will kill is Christmas joy and eyeballs.
Perhaps Michael Dell should consider writing off his weak “digital lifestyle” product lines and give the money back to the shareholders?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Virgin unveils ‘iPod mini killer’ and openly chides Apple for not allowing iTunes support – October 12, 2004
Packard Bell to release Apple iPod Mini ‘killer’ – August 12, 2004
Sony: Apple launched iPod too early, technology now ready for ‘Walkman’ name – August 08, 2004
Rio debuts 5GB ‘iPod mini killer’ – August 02, 2004
Mossberg: Sony Walkman ‘laborious, weak, lousy, confusing, stinks’ vs. Apple iPod – July 28, 2004
At least Olympus’ product is better than Dell’s. not that it’s too hard to beat. 😀
Everybody remember now. Dell don’t make there stuff they just peel the label off and stick their name on it.What a bunch of bottom feeders.
“The only things the Dell Pocket DJ 5 will kill is Christmas joy and eyeballs.”
I could not say it better…
If the new Olympus model eats batteries like their DigiCams, keep on looking. The Olympus Digital Camera I USED to have would flatten a set of Lithium Batteries in well under a day on vacation.
?????????????????????????? what is this again ???????????? nice try.
That thing looks like a garage door opener.
The Olympus includes the interesting concept of a built-in camera. Initially it seems to be a rather unnecessary additional feature, but I think this idea could become big considering how so many phones are not including a built-in camera.
“The only things the Dell Pocket DJ 5 will kill is Christmas joy and eyeballs.”
That is by far one MDNs better comments!
That Olympus thing is even uglier than the Dell thing! The funny part about the Olympus is that although the player doesn’t look anything like an iPod, the headphones are white just like the iPod. So if you hide that hunk of crap in your coat you can still look cool with your white headphones.
I think the 92% market share figure cited is for retail store sales only, which means Dell is not counted as they are direct sales. Also, shouldn’t we say HP is now #2? iPod with 87%, HP iPod with 5%, then the rest.
You just know Thurott is creaming his pants!
Butt UGLY. But that’s what I expected from Dell. I’m not a fan of chrome and brushed aluminum. I’ll be glad when the fad passes. White is so much more pure and timeless.
Who cares. Dell has such a pitiful market share in this segment that it’s virtually irrelevant what they put out really isn’t it? haha
Ken 82% was the retail figure. 92% is the entire hard-drive based music player market. That includes ALL sales channels.
if it was soft I would wipe my ass with it.
If its not…..just call it a Macho wipe.
Cheap pricing may help Dell to sell more computers b/c computers are relativly expensive things. But here with music players, they arent expensive enough for someone to want an ugly badly designed player just because it is 50 bucks cheaper.
it’s not that ugly… funniy enough.. the biggest problem with this thing is that weird logo..
“Isn’t dell a boring company that churns out black boxes?”
“yes billy, yes it is.”
Oh, wow! The new Dell Dinky-DJ is cheaper than the iPod Mini, and holds more? Dude! I’m sure it will kick the iPod Mini’s ass!
Uhh… Except that just about every other competitor also claims better specs than the iPod, and nobody’s buying their crap. It’s not about specs. In this case, consumers don’t care about the numbers. They care about the experience. The iPod just looks better and is easier to use than anything else out there.
But it continues. “Dell believes that its relatively low prices on the music players… will help win over consumers.” Yeah, right. It’s never worked before, but it’ll work this time!!
The problem with all these electronic companies is that they make products designed by techno-geeks for techno-geeks. Apple has a knack for creating elegant products that appeal to everybody, not just those who know the difference between MP3, AAC, and WMA. And the competitors have nothing to come back with. They just don’t have the design skills.
They stole the idea from the Broadway show “The Producers” but, it only works in comedies!
WOW! 5 GB instead of 4! What they conveniently forget to tell you is that you have to encode your Windoze Media at a higher bit rate than you would with AAC to come close to AAC’s sound quality. Windoze Media is full of audible artifacts at lower bit rates. Dell’s new mp3 player is uninspired. It’s pretty funny how Dell and all of these other companies can have an iPod staring them in the face and they still don’t understand why consumers prefer them overwhelmingly! Perhaps consumers are also casting their vote against having to use Windoze Media.
Oooooooo, it’s soooo cute!
Looks just like a turd, just smaller…Just like its bigger bro.
Oh wait, I just remembered I don’t like turds.
Why bother, you’ll never catch Apple. It’s like inventing bread and trying to make a fortune from it. Or trying to sell ice to eskimos…
Dell makes OKish computers I hear, they should pour their energy into sticking to what they know. Yeah everyone love to hate Apple but this is one battle they’re winning.
Bloody geeky “Music Fans” and their compressed music. PLEASE. Most of them rather have a good looking stylish player than the actual output of the device. Just another Mac Luser thang.
The Rio Carbon wipes its ass with this Dell and the iPod mini crap. 5GB, 20hr playtime, working equalizer.
I really like PC Mag’s review of Rio Carbon. Especially regarding its “excellent sound” with “static sounds.”
http://www.pcmag.com/review/0,2491,s=1612&a=137009,00.asp