Dell's Zing hopes to rival Apple in ecosystem, launch two players early next year
By Paul Miller 
posted August 15th 2008 4:23PM
posted August 15th 2008 4:23PM
With Zing on board, Dell's going after Apple's portable media dominance once again, but it seems our worst nightmares of a DJ Ditty 2 could be unfounded. Instead of building just another PlaysForSure-friendly or even WiFi-happy DAP, Dell's hoping to partner up with Apple's rivals to build a new ecosystem that will create better interoperation between PMPs, phones, cars, satellite radios and the multitude of online music stores out there. From the looks of things, that ecosystem is in good hands: with the acquisition of Zing's Tim Bucher, formerly of Apple fame, and the 120 person team he's built to help Dell put Apple in its place. Dell's staying a bit coy about the specifics of its plans, but word on the street is that they'll start shipping the software later this year, and push out a couple of players early next year. Sure, it could all fall apart in the end, but it's nice to see someone trying to be "the whole widget" of open standards portable media, as royally as it might eventually fail in the Apple-owned marketplace.
Why do you do this, Jubei? You prove time and time again that you're a worthless troll.
1) This thread has nothing to do with, nor does it mention the Zune at least once.
2) How is a high quality player such as the Zune going to be affected by some Dell piece of crap.
Hey Zeus, stop being a hypocrite.
Have you seen any of the new Dell lappies (their netbook for example) you would have realized by now that Dell has returned to good quality products. If they put the same amount of effort into their mp3 player as they do into their newer computers, they will make a solid one.
What's a zune?
they will fail. it will be funny to watch.
What kind of return are shareholders supposed to expect from this foray into consumer electronics?
Another Dell-saster-- ZING!!
DITTY DITTY ZING ZING!!!
I can see a future headline now:
Dell's music venture zings 3rd quarter profits.
I can't believe Dell is wasting its time on a PMP when they should be putting all their money and energy into their first smartphone entry.
wouldnt be the first.. i think they tried already.
but if they did make one.. im gonna make a guess:
-keyboard
-small screen
-horrible OS & UI
like winmo and palm
Wonder why Dell's staying coy about specifics. Oh. That's why. There are no specifics, just a bunch of BS in the air. Forget this market. PMP's will be replaced by more and more capable cell phones. Apple has a 6 year head start on anyone trying in this market. Just give up and let it be. I say this as someone who really can't the smugness of the average Apple customer, but I guess I can give credit where it is due. Anyway, consider why Apple had to make the iPhone. They knew the market for PMPs was on the way out.
That should be "can't stand" or "can't stomach" the smugness of...
hey,
what is a pmp?
and why is it on its way out?
I'm a pimp and I'm not going anywhere any time soon.
pmp = portable media player.
Some of the biggest geniuses are the crazy ones. 'Nuff said.
Why do I feel alarmed by this news? What worries me about this is the idea that Dell is going to create a seamless platform that will enable you to share your media with various devices. We all know how keen the record industry is on sharing so this rather suggest that MP3 will be out and DRM will be in otherwise we have no need for a new "platform" if MP3 is going to be used. And, yes, they can sod off if this is the plan. Just when DRM free is starting to become the standard it seems like Dell wants to take us back to the bad ol' days.
Perhaps I am being paranoid.
reminds me of what dell said 10 years ago
"Dell, speaking before several thousand technology executives at ITxpo97 in Orlando, answered a question about what he would do if he were CEO of Apple with a remark he probably instantly regretted:
“What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” "
lol
now apples market cap is 3x dells.
too little too late.