Beleaguered Dell’s Zing is Zung

“Michael Dell last year promised innovative new consumer products to generate ‘product lust’ and spark his company’s turnaround effort. But in the runup to the holiday sales season, Dell Inc. has been slow to deliver on that promise,” Justion Scheck and Christopher Lawton report for The Wall Street Journal.

MacDailyNews Take: If by “slow,” Scheck and Lawton mean “unable,” they’re right. Otherwise, “slow” gives Dell far too much credit.

Scheck and Lawton continue, “Dell has decided not to launch… a mini MP3 player based on entertainment software from Zing, a company Dell bought in 2007, for an expected fall release… say people familiar with the matter.”

Dell “decided to hold off on the music player indefinitely, one person said, and to proceed with Zing software. Dell declined to comment on the music player, but said it will introduce Zing software that organizes downloaded music and movies on PCs,” Scheck and Lawton report.

MacDailyNews Take: Epic fail of Enderlean proportions. (See: This is not a joke: Dell hires Rob Enderle to consult on new ‘iPod killer’ – July 30, 2008)

Scheck and Lawton continue, “Dell says it is well-equipped for holiday sales, having unveiled multicolored Studio notebooks in June and several desktops since.”

MacDailyNews Take: Slapping some paint on the lids of OS-limited, thick, ugly, craptops is considered “well-equpped” at Dell.

Scheck and Lawton continue, “Lou Miscioscia, a Cowen & Co. analyst, says it has also raised concerns about Dell’s attempt to emerge from a three-year slump. ‘They’re obviously behind on the consumer side,’ Mr. Miscioscia says. Last month, he lowered his expectations for Dell’s sales over the next year, citing economic weakness and a ‘slower-than-expected ramp of new PCs.'”

Dell’s retail chief Michael Tatelman says “‘You’ll see some very sexy products coming out of Dell,’ though they may come after the holidays, he says. Dell, he adds, will fuel holiday sales with new ways for consumers to personalize PCs, such as new exterior designs and deals with music and movie providers to preload entertainment content on PCs.”

MacDailyNews Take: Tatelman is delusional.

Scheck and Lawton continue, “In a conference call last fall, [CEO Michael Dell] said Dell would increase consumer sales by engendering ‘product lust.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, for Macs.

Scheck and Lawton continue, “In October, Dell finished company-wide layoffs of about 9,000 workers.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “James W.,” “Richard,” and “Dennis” for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: BusnessWeek’s Peter Burrows interviewed Michael Dell in August:
Burrows: It seems to me that if the strategy works, Dell could be the primary counterweight to Apple’s closed digital media model. Am I making too much of this?
Dell: I don’t think you are.