Dell Teases Two New Products At CES

• Dell brought a model on stage to show off the newest addition to its notebook lineup; Adamo and the Mini 10. Adamo, which started off as just a code name only to later stick, is a secret project that Dell was reluctant to give away details about even at CES. All anyone knows about the new notebook is that it’s sleek, thin and uses top-of-the-line materials for the industrial design. Sounds fancy. The biggest clue is that it is not running Intel’s atom processor, so it’s not a netbook. Dell would not even disclose who is powering the processor, but did say the machine will be available for sale at retail locations sometime in the first half of the year.
• Dell also announced their latest netbook, the Inspiron Mini 10. This is Dell’s 3rd netbook debuted in less than 4 months. They already offer the Mini 9 and most recently, the Mini 12. All 3 are priced under $600. This CES proved that Dell is willing to wage war on the race for the bottom (i.e lowest priced laptops), while focusing on higher end products as well. This is the smartest strategy for the future of selling computers to consumers. Why? What is becoming more recognized now is the two different types of consumers that are buying notebooks: There is the high-end user that needs desktop applications, large on deck storage, DVD player, etc. The other users (netbooks), which I believe will be the vast majority of computer users in the next 3 years, will realize the only needs they have from a computer are to get online, where they can take care of 99% of what they want. This is the consumer that requires little on deck storage, doesn’t watch DVD’s or burn CD’s on their computer, embraces the cloud for photo hosting, enterprise applications, television, etc. All the bells and whistles that used to be the selling point of a computer for most is being replaced online. Companies like Apple and their keynote presentation @ Macworld tried to wow the audience with their updated suite of native applications that will be found on the new Mac’s. Although they look pretty and have amazing features, it is not enough for me and others with short pockets who can achieve similar results with something in the cloud. Then again, I can’t really just go to Sting’s house and get a guitar lesson like I can on the new GarageBand, but I think I’ll live.

Tagged as: Dell mini 10, netbooks