A brutal death at Dell

[Zunerama Ed.]

From the Zunerama front page:

Microsoft: are you watching?

Dell just learned a painful lesson about trying to compete against Apple's iPod. The company has discretely pulled itself out of the portable music player market, according to a CNN story posted a few hours ago.

Last year Dell put enormous resources in its DJ Ditty music player in an attempt to compete with the iPod Shuffle.

On paper, Dell should have found some traction with Ditty:

• Dell is the world's largest computer maker
• Dell had priced Ditty at $99, with 512MB of flash memory. This compared well with the slightly pricier Shuffle. (Apple has since dropped the 512MB shuffle to $69, and now offers a 1GB model for $99.)
• Moreover, the Dell device sported an LCD display and FM radio receiver - neither of which is available on the Shuffle.

What held the DJ Ditty back? (Other than the silly name of course.)

I'm sure Microsoft is looking hard at that very question. It's an ugly and brutal fight to try to unseat a category-killer like iPod.

The DJ Ditty was preceded in death by Dell's DJ line of hard drive-based music players. No services are planned.

[Teen Zuner]

I think that this just shows that the public isn't as concerned about the features the product offers, as they are about the name and history that comes behind it. Now that iPod has made a name for itself, quite a dominant one at that, it seems near impossible for something else to come in and steal away their market. In my opinion it is not they actual Zune and its features that are going to get it sold, its the advertissement and hype that they create around it. If they can find a way to make Zune something as "cool" or "cooler" than iPod, then I'm sure they have the hardware to make it a worthwhile product.

[h3l3nWeelz]

You said it, sister. iPod has the cooooooooooooool factor. So far, Zune has all the buzz, and none of the cool.

[ichosemit]

Apple must be CROWING over this news about Dell. Wow. Is iPod invincible?

[daveg]

Put it this way. If Microsoft Zune fails, after Dell failed, to unseat iPod - - then I don't think ANY big player will invest $$$ to unseat Apple in the digital player world.
I hope Zune really shakes the market up though. Go Zune.

[Albus]

Hey Ed,
 your story from the Zunerama main page just got posted on Yahoo Finance. Thought you'd like to know.
- Albus

[Woody]

Hey that's great. Did someone from here post it?

[Zunerama Ed.]

Hey, very cool about Yahoo Finance picking up the Zunerama commentary on Dell.

I wondered why our visitor count jumped a bit today!

[melody]

My sister looked at DJ Ditto but didn't buy one. She's glad about that now.

Me, I'm waitin for Zune

[xxxoom]

I'm one of the few people who bought a 20 GB Dell DJ about 2 years ago--I've just never been a fan of Apple's smug advertising and cult-like followers.  However, after five years of market dominance, it seemed that iPod was unbeatable, and I had accepted that my next mp3 player would probably be an iPod.  Then, only weeks later, I heard about Zune... and decided to wait (to buy an iPod). And I'm wondering how many other people like me are out there (people who are happy with their Windows PC's... and a bit sour on Apple).

Then, I recently read an article about how iPods sales are below estimates this quarter.  They were expected to be about 8.6 million... but are now more likely to come in at about 8 million... or maybe less. Could that 0.6 million be a direct result of the Zune announcement (which is still mostly only known to tech geeks)? It's possible, but... that equals about 10% of iPod's sales already.

It remains to be seen what will happen.  Many have tried to stop the iPod juggernaut... and all have failed.  But... have any sparked the interest of Zune?  And have any been willing to put up the amount of cash as Microsoft?  And have any ever entered a new market... and conqured it in a few years?

No.  No one but Microsoft. 

[Rod the Mod]

... Many have tried to stop the iPod juggernaut... and all have failed. But... have any sparked the interest of Zune? And have any been willing to put up the amount of cash as Microsoft? And have any ever entered a new market... and conqured it in a few years?

No. No one but Microsoft.

You are right - if Dell put a lot of marketing muscle behind DJ, I must have missed it.

Zune is getting a lot more press and speculation, at least in the industry. And with technophiles (and audiophiles maybe).

So it's a different case study.

P.S. my condolences on your DJ.  It's a bummer to invest in a gizmo and have its support disappear on you.   

[xxxoom]

well, i can still use my Dell DJ--I can still add and remove songs. So it's not a total loss.

i just hope zune is a step up in the "cool" dept. 

[andre]

little late here!

the DELL DJ 1st GEN was perfect for an engineer like me...substance over style

however, i know that i am in the minority here and hence one of the reasons why it failed. it just looked ugly next to an iPod. For image aware individual this is a big thing!

as a DJ user i was never happy with the sync abilities of the device. i have had dells software as well as dj explorer but it never 'just worked"

i think it was good for dell not to advertise this functional but ugly product. it would have drove more people to the iPod.

hindsight being 20-20...DELL should have made the device more 'hansome/purty'

[xxxoom]

i owned the OTHER dell dj sold, andre. LOL.

and you're right... basically, it looked like you were carrying around a small hard drive!

mine never worked very well either.  it would freeze pretty regularly... and the volume control doesn't always work... or it changes other settings (besides volume)!

still, it's still hanging in there.  so i'll continue to use it when i'm working out.  but i'll use my zune when i'm on a plane or in "public". 

[Albus]

Me, I'm going to wait for the flash-memory Zune. Although... I'm guessing that won't have Wireless. Anyone know?