Dell gives retail another shot
By Paul Miller 
posted May 22nd 2006 8:17PM
posted May 22nd 2006 8:17PM
[Via AppleInsider]
posted May 22nd 2006 8:17PM
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I can't take this seriously.
I don't like this idea at all. This simply means more people will have to pay sales tax when they add stores to states they haven't yet occupied.
Beware all yee diciples of the almighty "i". You're tootin' your horns an awful lot these days (well, actually, you've always done that) and it may just come back to haunt you.
Don't get me wrong, I've been an exclusive PC supporter for many years, but Apples evolution over the past 4 - 5 years has impressed me enough that a Mac puchase of some kind is a near certainty for me in the next year or so. What with Linux underpinings, a CLI, x86 CPU, Bootcamp, and machines available new for under $600, I really have run out of excuses (and Macs are showing up more in the corporate world, so I'll start having to support them in greater numbers soon).
But in fairness to the PC side of things, and to reality itself, the excessive stressing of disparate virus resistance between Macs and PCs really should stop. Once Macs have something more than 5% marketshare, hackers, crackers and script kiddies will turn their eye towards your pretty white boxes and you will have to do battle with them just like your PC bretheren have been doing.
Not a ridicule, just a reality...
As for Dell stores...yeah...I too was surprised to hear the notion that Dell could have fanboys. Most people who are skilled with Macs abolutly love Macs and boost them to no end. Most people who are skilled with PCs absolutely hate Dell and ridicule them to no end, as they build their machines themselves.
Maybe Dell can claim Alienwares base of fanboys, as they now own Alienware...?
And actually, I think "Alienware (a subsidiary of Dell)" stores would be a better idea. If I were going to spend $3000 - $5000 on a gaming rig, I would be willing to drive a couple hours and expend an entire day off going 1/4 - 1/2 way across the state to check out a floor model beforehand (as I would guess there would only ever be a few Alienware stores in the more metropolitan cities across the country). $3K is a lot of money. But I don't think I'd be very interested in dedicating even an hour dragging my lazy bod down to the mall to mix with hoi polloi just so I can test drive Excel and Outlook on a Celeron based desktop that I'm thinking about dropping $350 on. Not even if I get to pick up something at Cinnabon on the way out...
You pay sales tax in most states whether Dell has a store/kiosk there or not. The problem is Dell has remote sales people in many states and therefore a presence in those states and are required to collect sales tax. It should also be noted, that even if a company doesn't collect sales tax in most states you have an obligation to pay sales tax. In Texas (for example) the law states that if you buy something anywhere in the world that would incur sales tax had you bought it in Texas, then you owe a "Use" tax. Most states have similar laws, they just don't enforce them. Dell could care less about sales tax....it doesn't go into their coffers.
This is just stupid, who's going to buy a dell they don't even get when they can buy an apple they do.
#26, Dell hates the sales tax. They don't get the money, government does, and in the end, less people buy computers. No sales tax just means having a 7-10% off sale without losing any money. How did you think taxes worked?
However, the company is still "working out how to handle tech support questions that existing customers might bring to the store."
This would be news for us, but not important. Why? I guarantee you that 98% if not all of engadget readers either build their own PC or has an apple computer.
and LOL @ dell fanboys
Dell bugs their computers and is spying on users:
http://ivlad.unixgods.net/lj/keylog/klog.htm
This is scary stuff.
what does 34 mean?
'you have no idea what you want to buy from looking at adverts in the papers or on flyers'
you know exactly what ur getting! they're all the same, massive, cheap plastic unreliable machines that run windows! thats why no companies like dell, hp have retail stores because they're all the same. most guys, probably like a lot of engadget readers, just want a grey box, doesnt matter how big, an internet connection and a screen that they can see porn on, thats it.
Dell fanboys seems like an oxymoron to me.
@ Oddmanout
The Mac virus shortage has little to do with the low market share. The first hacker to write an actual Mac virus will earn themselves a nice slice of fame. Don't tell me nobody is trying.
Just look at all the publicity around the so-called "first OSX virus", which turned out to be something that could not infect of the 'net... just local networks if they were all utilizing a specific application.
Anywho, as for the Dell store: why spend the money? Unless they are going to offer a very unique experience, theres's not a whole lot a high-end retail shop can accomplish if you already have the mind-share that Dell has.
I think the photo shows the appropriate level of customer interest in a DELL store!
Only 2 people in the store and the other one walking right by.
Pete T, I think at least one of those people in the store is an employee.
No. 59 "I think the photo shows the appropriate level of customer interest in a DELL store!"
What about this: http://static.flickr.com/54/151853525_30687a580d_o.png
@55 Do you know what happened after? Did Dell get sued or what?
The northpark store is located in an area of high wealth and heavy mac usage. Theres 2 Apples stores within a 5 mile radius.
I buy my computers at Best Buy. Why?
1. I usually need a new computer the day I buy it. (I buy a lot of laptops for work).
2. Getting it repaired is easy. You take it in and they fix it, or they send it out. You don't have to spend hours trying to convince them that the computer is actually broken.
That's why I don't buy comps from Dell anymore.
IMHO Dell should focus on mall-based repair centers. Product support is where their business is going down the drain. Any home consumer who's had to repair more than two computers is not going to buy a Dell again. It's too painful.
If Dell had a repair store in my area, I would probably go back to buying from them again.
this will be a disaster, only apple fan boys get fooled into paying a premium for a computer at the mall.
"Apples saved my business. You get what you pay for. Period." - I'm sure you can find about a million more people who will say Dell saved their biz to every one person who says the same for Apple. I owned two Apples because I was anti Microsoft at the time, and they were both disasters. I have owned 3 Dells since and they have been much more solid for about a 1/3 of the price.
Dell is bad, you can't dispute that. This coming from a guy that has too much history with their hardware. My desktop at work is a Dell, the widescreen monitor I have at home is a Dell, my wife's home computer is a Dell, and my personal laptop is a Dell. This doesn't include the numerous Dell machines I've worked on in previous jobs. All I can say is, Dell is good for some things, but when it comes down to their desktops, I would never shell out a single dime for one. Granted, the Dells we have at my job are pretty solid, 64-bit dual core, full metal casing, super quiet. Those are top of the line, you get what you pay for. But their low end line of PCs is complete garbage. Nothing but issues with those things. I couldn't count the number of times a hard drive died for no reason, or a pin inside popped or broke off, or the IDE bus fried, or a memory slot sparked rendering the slot useless, I could go on and on. I typically don't deal with tech support, but the network admin at the company I work for does and he has nothing but bad things to say about that. Apple on the other hand is a completely different story. I have used Apple machines in the past and I personally can't stand them. This of course is because Apple computers are not made for developers. I don't care what you have to say, it's just not. Sure it's big with graphic artists, but to say you would buy an Apple mainly for Photoshop is probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Apple has it in the bag, they have their user base and they can charge "Apple fans" an arm and a leg for pretty much anything. The same monitor you can buy from Dell for $2000, the Apple equivalent would cost #3000. Apple computers to me are a novelty, people just buy them to "be different" and "hip and trendy". When you really look close at an Apple computer, it's nothing more than a pretty casing for a machine that's just "OK". If the form factor is important to you, go with an Apple. I personally don't have a computer desk in my living room, that's for the TV and couch. I'm content with locking my PC away in my office, it's where I go to develop and tinker. Ironically, the custom PC I built looks and performs a thousand times better than any Apple ever would, yet it cost me about half of what an equivalent Apple machine would have cost.
Who actually cares about how their computer looks? Apple's may look nice in the box; wait three months and it'll be scratched and dead.
"Don't tell me nobody is trying."
Why would I say a stupid thing like that ? I'm sure people are trying. But with so few people actually HAVING Macs (that's where the low marketshare angle comes in) to work with and experiment on, the number of people with intimate enough knowledge of the Mac OS to create successful exploits AND sufficient malcontent to want to in the first place is of course very very small. Thus the yield from their efforts is very very small.
Now perhaps you think I was saying or implying that eventually Mac users will have the exact same amount of problems with the various forms of malware that PC/Windows users have to deal with. It's possible, but I was not actually making that precise assertion (personally I agree with many other peoples feelings that Msofts tacit monopoly has allowed them to get complacent and sloppy, and this is a large part of the reason Windows and IE are so vulnerable to attacks). All I'm saying is is that the Mac OS is not bulletproof. It is not unbreakable, it is not hack/crack/virus proof. It just isn't. An UNDEFEATED fighter and an INVINCIBLE fighter are two very different things...
It's like parties. Small intimate gatherings among friends are usually pretty cool, pretty fun, and pretty problem free. Everyone knows the bounds of whats acceptable behaviour and by and large abides by them. But the more people you invite, the more likely it gets that a bad element is gonna end up inside your house and is gonna do something distastefull which is gonna cause a problem for everyone.
Now I'll say again and even more explicitly, I doubt the Mac OS will be in as horribly flimsy a state as Windows is in for a long time. But as it becomes more prevalent in the hands of consummers and businesses it will get targeted for attacks more and more, and inevitably some of those attacks will be successful. Again, it will quite likely be less vulnerable than whatever Msoft has out at the same time, but to think that ANY OS is "immune" to attack and exploitation is simply ludicrous...
All just IMHO...
"So please don't label me as an Apple fanboy, because like all of you, I have a electronic product of my own that I am obliged to defend."
Sorry, but you are a fanboy if you're "obliged to defend" it. Truth is truth. I paid too much for my new XPS M1710 - $3400! And the bling LED lights are ridiculous teen '2F2F' type nonsense... I wouldn't feel "obliged" to refute those facts.
Apple owners feel like they need to carry this torch of elitism and combative defensive huffy attitude whenever someone points out a Mac or iPOD problem. Top it off with good old snobby advertising by Apple -- I mean, these inane "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads are even worse than the 'Switch' ads of years past. Ye Gods, who would want to even associate themselves with such unfounded marketing BS?
Oh, right - the folks who want to look good amongst the Starbucks crowd.
"I owned two Apples because I was anti Microsoft at the time, and they were both disasters."
I'll say. In my 15 years of doing video game artwork, the Mac users were almost nonexistant because the systems weren't as easily maintained/modded, weren't as easily troubleshooted when they did have issues and didn't have a suitable suite of dev software.
Back in the early 90's, I had the misfortune of using a Mac IIci for video grabbing and rotoscoping work for a SNES game. HOLY GOD that thing was a POS! It crashed daily, and took forever to reboot. It was also slow as molasses compared to even our lower-end PC Windows 3.1 workstations at the time. Yeah, rly. Had to use it because it was the only system in the office with a video capture card at the time. Woe was me.
Macs only have this false distinguished rep because their owners who paid too much have this aforementioned fanboy 'obligatory' holier-than-thou attitude.
I live a mile from the palisades center mall. New Store life-span there is far less than a year, and I've noticed that time steadily decreasing.
This Dell store will open and close within the span of 6 months. Maybe 8 if they're lucky.
They have to compete with Staples, Officemax, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, and Apple on the bottom floor just oozing its bleached light onto the surrounding area. It reflects wonderfully off the Swarovski crystals in the next store.
[ ]]
Stunned silence.
Quick question...
Does this "Pixelator" guy read every article looking for a chance to type up these insanely retarded "You have an apple product and I hate your guts" comments? That's really, really pathetic man.
And the continuous use of the word "fanboy" grows more tiresome everyday.
And pixel, before you come in here responding to my comments...I don't even own an apple product, outside of my iPod. So, unfortunately for you, you CAN'T call me a fanboy.
lol... I see here @ Engadget dot com, you can't have any tech preferences w/o being considered the anti-christ by computer nerds. Get a life people. (and by people..I mean pixelator).
I would pay to have someone get those foot traffic/line poles set up in a big maze in front of the store as if Dell was expecting a HUGE Apple like opening with one guy standing there. What a great picture that would make!
"My girlfriend's new $1260 Dell Core Duo T2500 17" E1705 blows the doors off the $2500 MacBook Pro. My XPS walks all over the highest end Apple DESKTOP. Top quality my ass... Apple products crash, fail and are even more likely to look like you took a Brillo pad to them after a few weeks or leave a burn mark on your leg."
You're not giving any actual evidence for any of these outrageous claims. As for the MacBook problems, yes, Apple is not perfect. But give them a try and you'll find they're miles ahead of cheap Dells.
"Spoken like a typical elitist Apple snob who cares more about the image of his chosen computer than what kind of value, features and performance it delivers. You want people to think you're smarter based on what computer you have. God, that's pathetic."
No, we don't care more about the image, we care more about the features and performance. Like users of any high-quality items -- from kitchen knives to cars -- Mac users are happy with their Apple products.
"Like the overheating overpriced MacBurnPro is a paragon of quality? Like the latest iPODs aren't laggy, crashprone junk? I own a 60GB."
Well first, learn to spell "iPod." Second, I have no idea what you're talking about. Look around and you'll find that quite a few people love their iPods.
"Pardon me while I get back to my faster, cheaper, better-specced 70's plastic (with more software)."
Good luck! Not possible! Plus, did no one ever teach you that quantity isn't quality?
Dell used to make good products. I had an inspiron 8200, that thing was as thick as your mums fat ass and just as ugly but it got the job done and with some degree of hard effort. A couple friends of mine have recent Dells and ive had to fix so many Windows problems, spyware, adware, viruses etc. Windows is is joke period. And anything that runs Windows degrades it severely. On top of that you have these cheap ass Dells cutting costs like making the keyboard feel like its some sort of lose plastic that when you press on one key the whole keyboard frame moves up and around. The Mac OS X is by far a more respectable and reliable operating system that works seemingly with hardware and is bundled with great every day use software. I just wish I had switched over to it sooner in 2001.