“By most measures, Apple Computer Inc.’s Steve Jobs famous unveilings in front of staunch loyalists would be a tough act to follow. Imagine then, going head-to-head with the legendary CEO. That’s what Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc. and a legend himself, was up against Tuesday,” May Wong reports for The Associated Press.
“The two influential leaders delivered keynotes simultaneously — Jobs at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco and Dell at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,” Wong reports.
Wong reports, “The auditorium hosting Jobs’ keynote held 4,000 people and still wasn’t large enough. Given the sold-out crowd, many more were sitting cross-legged and kneeling in the aisles with rapt attention as Jobs, always the consummate showman, joked with the audience and debuted a highly anticipated cell phone and set-top box, which he called ‘revolutionary.’ The ballroom hosting Dell’s keynote also had a capacity of 4,000 people but was barely half full.”
Wong reports, “As a co-founder of Apple, Jobs has always been considered a leader of a cult of sorts, a loyal group of Macintosh fans, and anyone in his presence is subject to his ‘reality distortion field.’ Windows-based PC users, on the other hand, are typically not as fanatical about their machines.”
MacDailyNews Take: There is a reason for that and everybody, including May Wong, knows it- even if they won’t report it.
Wong continues, “Dell, meanwhile, introduced a new environmental ‘Plant a Tree for Me’ program in which it offered to plant a tree for every PC sold.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yawn. How, uh, obsequious of him; in a non-riveting, yet totally transparent sort of way. Joining Greenpeace, Mikey? Care to contribute a little something or have you already? Hey, when’s the next Apple Store picket?
Wong continues, “In an interview after his speech, Dell said he wasn’t worried about his company’s news getting overshadowed by the media attention for Apple. ‘I think our announcements are going to get the recognition they deserve,’ he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Exactly. Crickets chirping.
Wong continues, “The two trade shows are booked years in advance. CES typically begins the first week of January, and Macworld the second week. Often in the past, the tail end of CES coincides with the beginning of Macworld. But this year, Jobs’ opening keynote landed on the second day of CES.”
“Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, said the organization decided many years ago to start pushing down the opening date of CES to allow its thousands of exhibitors more breathing room following the New Year,” Wong reports. “Shapiro said the association has invited Jobs to deliver a keynote at CES in the past. ‘Steve Jobs turned it down,’ Shapiro said, ‘but he said he’d be happy to come if we change the date.'”
Full article here.
Let’s see: attend a keynote presented by some dime-a-dozen Windows-centric box assembler or a keynote by the man who defined the personal computer industry and who is rapidly taking over the CE industry? What a tough choice.
So, every day is Arbor Day at Dell? Kudos, Mikey. Now get back to work kissing your market share buh-bye while figuring out how you’re going to sell the company and give the money back to the shareholders.
Related article:
Total eclipse of Michael Dell happens next Tuesday – January 04, 2007
Kind of lame on Dell’s part.
But then all the PC guys are waiting for VISTA to come out to make their big splash of new product.
Where was Leopard and new Macs at MacWorld?????
Oh by the way did anybody catch during the Keynote when Mr. Jobs called MonkeyBoy to tell hime…”You’re screwed! I ain’t retiring!”.
It has created quite a stir I must agree. I’m on my favourite soccoer team site now and theres a 3 page thread on it already ffs.
As I say, I don’t understand too much about the way gadgets work etc,I just love to use them, but surely this means that because the buttons etc can change, then software/firmware updates can add completely new features to this baby? Think that may have been what Jobs implied in the keynote anyway. Not sure really what you could do with it.
That’s the highlight of M. Dell?
Plant a tree? Yikes!
I didn’t know things were so bad @ Dell.
I visualize a new line of Apple furniture, with multi-touch capabilities. Think of it, one piece of furniture to watch, record tv and music, work and create, answer the phone, play games, stay in-touch with friends and family. Then pick up the hand-held and go forth into the world, plugs into the car or bike, too.
Dell (and MS is partly to blame) needs to start making computers that aren’t useless after 12 – 18 months. That would do a lot more for the environment.
Lame. Since the multi-national paper companies and the Lumber industry have already started to plant two trees for every one harvested – oh, well on 10 to 15 years ago – the GREEN truth is that we really don’t need any more trees.
Scientific estimates are that our forestation is about two thirds of what it was when ol Chris first landed on the new world. And it ain’t shrinking. Greenpeace and Mikey are just using the whole tree thing to make money and look good. It does nothing.
Think on this. Many a high level executive is gonna buy the iPhone and use it. They will have a Mac in their hands and they’ll love it. They will demand the IT department make way for the iPhone. Finally the DOG will wag the TAIL. It’s a revolution people!
Quote “Dell said he wasn’t worried about his company’s news getting overshadowed by the media attention for Apple. ‘I think our announcements are going to get the recognition they deserve,’ he said.”
Yea, I’ve heard absoulutely nothing about Dell.
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And you know what? That’s a good thing!
I guess he knows now what they deserve.
Let’s be fair!
He introduced a Dell Home Media Suite (a PC with some additional peripherals), and some new Gaming-level PCs (new Alienware boxes). All using a new OS, Vista.
Steve didn’t introduce any new Macs or a new computer OS.
So there!
SARCASM OFF.
i didn’t see this mentioned after a quick skim thru comments but:
Dell is not buying trees. the customer is only offered the chance to pay for a tree to be planted by Dell.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Little Richard and Richard Simmons just had a conference call and exclaimed, “that is REALLY gay.”
Well, I for one think the tree-planting thing is a good development.
“Well, I for one think the tree-planting thing is a good development.”
I second that…. thats all the Dull brothers should be doing from now on…
Not only saving the environment, but also millions from PC hell.
Apple has a similar program.
They’re planting Palm. But not for growth. Just landfill.
Anna May Wong’s tits are made of aluminum!
@ Unsquirted
Ooooo… ouch. =)
Too bad so many people in this forum are falling over themselves to pretend that planting trees is somehow “gay” or unworthy of respect. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Sure, Dell couldn’t innovate an iPhone or AppleTV if its survival depended on it, but it gets full marks for:
– Being fully transparent about their chemical replacement policy
– Documenting how they’ll re-engineer their entire supply chain to eliminate dangerous chemicals
– Offering product recycling for all their products.
– Accepting recycled items in all their sales territories worldwide
– etc
It is incredible to me that the chemical and recycling policies of Apple – a market and technology leader – lag behind those of Dell’s. How is it that Dell can show such leadership in these areas, while Apple falls increasingly behind?
So go ahead and sneer at Michael Dell for having a half-full auditorium at his CES keynote if you must, but give him and Dell their due for the environmental reform commitments they are publicly making.
Nice work “Green PLanet” my sentiments exactly.
I would also add that planting a tree is not synonymous with joining Greenpeace, and certainly not synonymous with paying Greenpeace to attack Apple. This sort of foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria is like trying to tell us that you were kidnapped and anal-probed by aliens.
Basically, please stop chewing the bug powder
Despite what you think and report about Dell and the Consumer Electronics Show, let me tell you, we accomplished what we wanted to and that is what matters.
We introduced great new products, furthered our efforts in the field of sustainability, had a chance to review initiatives underway that strengthen our direct relationships with customers and met with representatives of the blogging community to name just a few things.
According to the New York Times report of the Apple event, the “two-hour presentation [was] before an audience of reporters, analysts and Apple employees.” If that is the case, it would be interesting to know how many Apple employees were bused in to fill the hall?
Also according to the New York Times, “he [Mr. Jobs] showed obvious delight in highlighting subtle industrial design features. Mr. Jobs showed a series of applications including e-mail, advanced voice mail, photo collections and visually appealing Web searching. He promoted the fact that the new iPhone is powered by the same core OS X operating system that the Macintosh computer is based on, offering power-management features and advanced graphics abilities.”
Bringing a $500 phone to market (when the average price of cell phones is declining) 6 months from now in order to reach upscale users may position Apple to be in the telephone business while also making computers. Good for you. It might also drive the stock price up for a day.
However, you would think in a presentation that was over two hours in length Mr. Jobs might have had more to say.
When you say Mr. Jobs is rapidly taking over the CE industry, did you mean customer experience? Because if you did I’d be pleased to point you in the direction of some Apple bloggers who are not happy with their consumer electronics customer experience with Apple. And sure, that’s an issue we face too. But we have taken moments, and continue to take time to recognize concerns expressed by our customers.
The first step is recognition of an issue. We are also investing and acting on issues our customers are talking about. When does Apple plan to recognize the issues and take steps to correct its customer issues?
How about letting the online community of Apple users know how Apple plans to interact with them? Or is the strategy just to continue to ignore them and go after those who speculate about the company?
And in a full two hour presentation Mr. Jobs could not find a minute or two to address his company’s stand on recycling or environmentally sustainable business practices or its product recycling?
How about just a minute or two to talk about Apple contributions to medical research or some thing of value, beyond sleek design and glitz.
Mr. Jobs might have stole the show and if that’s the kind of eclipse you want to gloat about…then I hope you enjoy the spotlight.
We will continue along our path which may seem boring and out of your spotlight…but frankly, we are proud of where we are heading, based on our direct connection to customers and the reality of what so many accomplish using Dell everyday
@ RichardatDELL
I think you better point some of the writing talent to updating your resume. I think you’re going to be out of a job before too long. A supposed Dell employee calling Apple out on customer satisfaction is simple laughable. Does Apple have a 23% return rate on its machines?
You make some valid points, but sadly they are points that the average consumer doesn’t give a sh|t about. Carping about it the way you do should probably tell you why your company is on the slide toward redundancy it’s currently suffering from.
We’re coming for you, Dell. You’re not going to sell your litter boxes much longer.
-c