Instead of trying to be a leader, Dell is at this point, content to be a follower.
I'm sorry, but when was Dell ever a leader? There is a lot of risk to being a leader.
They've always waited until someone else broke and built the market, and then jumped in with products that did what everyone else had, but with better value for the money. That's been their modus operandi from the day they opened their doors.
Whaaat? Whaaaaaaat? Didn't Bill Gates say that the future was in UMPC before he retired? So of course Dell will want to get in on that bandwagon. After all, Microsoft is Dell's friend. Microsoft is everyone's friend.
He also said that tablet PCs were going to kill laptops. If you can count on one thing in this business, it's usually that Microsoft's predictions are wrong.
Anyway, there is absolutely no evidence that Dell is seriously considering the release of a UMPC. Besides which, a UMPC wouldn't be Dell's style--they like coming into an established market and taking over share, and it's yet unproven that there's any market for UMPCs, let alone one big enough to warrant Dell's interest.
To K7a: Intel had some new processors under development, code-named Monahans, that were supposed to be capable of 25% more speed and 50% less power. However, they've never made it to market for reasons that haven't been revealed. But it may have something to do with Intel's decision to sell off the XScale line in order to focus on "core businesses," such as getting beaten up by AMD. They just didn't want to put the energy into a market that "only" was worth about $600 million dollars.
To the original poster: Dell has not discontinued the Axim line (despite rumors to the contrary), and it also appears that they're not going to be launching anything new this year. It's probably an excellent time to pick up an Axim.
Maybe I'm wrong. However, it seems to me that at one time Dell was a leader in regards to building quality computers (about the same time frame as Gateway was big name/a leader). Or maybe Dell never was and it was nothing more than brand name hype. Arguably, even the hype has faded away. Right now, I wouldn't go with Dell for customer service (ha) and the perception is that their computers aren't any better than anyone elses, though from what I've seen their higher end monitors are pretty impressive for the price.
And arguably, the Axim x51 pocket pc was a leader--so much so that it remains a leader today (though it is beginning to slip and will continue to slip as 'the' pocket pcers pocket pc device). Even today the Dell Axim X51v remains one of the best products on the market for its narrow niche, one of the most powerful, and definately one of the best for the price.
My opinion--who am I? But my opinion is that Dell generally puts out good stuff and sometimes, once in a while, they build great stuff. However, for some years they have offered terrible support and questionable marketing, both of which has hurt their brand image; ironically, the lack of support has hurt the most with their target market--which has never been the relatively smaller tech savy Aximsite kind of person. Rather, Dell seems to want to market to the much broader based Joe America and Joleen Europe--those who are not tech savy, or who are in school and arguably don't have time to do work arounds for Dell's lack of support for the tradeoff of having one of the best machines available.
Nor does all of the blame rest on Dell. As we all know here on Aximsite, Microsoft's activesink has been one of the worst offenders in regards to bugs. Well, Microsoft still has time to mend their ways, lest Apple, Google or the burgeoning phone market, or someone else entirely send them the way of IBM. Trim a little fat off of Microsoft and you still have an 800 pound gorilla. For Dell, it is more serious. For Dell it will be a struggle to get off the sickbed, though I suspect they will still continue to put out good product at a good price, (and tick people off with their terrible support and continue to market their products as if it every one were an ipod) right up until the time they declare bankrupcy or are bought out by someone else.
Eh. Everyone has a penny, if not two cents. They don't make my favorite soup anymore, nor my favorite pizza. The places where I grew up are all gone, the buildings where I worked as a boy and as a young man have all been torn down. When they no longer make a standalone pocket pc, then maybe I'll go with a converged device, or <maybe> a umpc. Or perhaps, by then I'll be able to hack into an ipod somehow to do at least some of what my Dell Axim does for me now. Sniff.
:) Stick an SD card in an 800 gb ipod and find a way for me to play and display textmaker and maybe growing old(r) once my Axim has gone won't be so bad.
Dell isn't getting out of the PDA business... but the reason nothing has been released since the x51v... is because there is nothing to compete with the x51v.
Why would Dell top its own product? I wouldn't expect to see anything new from Dell until other manufactures start upping the bids a little.
UMPC's may be the next fad... but I agree that there will always be need for a PDA.
Granted, if we had every feature listed in this forum, we'd need a lead acid battery to power the thing. Not everybody does everything. I like streamed movies over Wi-Fi as much as the next guy, but one feature I look for is how heavy the thing is and how long I can hold it up to my ear without having my shoulder cramp up. Since, you know, one of the features of a phone is talking on it.
Dell would likely either go down the HTC PDA-smartphone-alike route, or go UMPC. Either way, they're in Microsoft's backpocket.
However, seeing as how Verizon is talking with YouTube for content deals and the appearance of Slingbox -- I do believe that portable media is going to catch on very fast. I don't know if Wi-Fi is the most efficient medium though.
I thought rearranging the guts a bit and add a bit of body will fit a 2200 mAh battery (hx4700 style, flat and long) in it?
Are there even any new mobile chips in development anymore? Is anything in the foreseeable future going to be available to replace the current ARM chips? I've been shopping around because i'm ready to upgrade to a new pda, but I can't find anything better than my x50v that compensates for the ram lost to wm5. I can't find any device at all besides x50/51v with 3D acceleration either, the other thing I just can't do without now that I've had it all this time. Did intel seriously develop the 2700g just to be used in two devices (excluding that one umpc that needs it just to display svga)?
I have trouble finding the answers to these questions without sorting through 10 years of outdated news or ads and reviews on the internet.
I think if you can carry a small UMPC you could carry a small laptop. Neither one will fit in your pocket so you would have to carry a bag of some sort. I bought my X5 so I could possibly carry it with me. In a PielFrama case it isn't very easy to carry around so I don't carry it much. I've thought about an X3 or even X50v because they are smaller but more powerful, and maybe in a rhinoskin they would be small enough for my pockets. After reading about some of the nagging problems with the X50v I'm not so sure anymore, maybe I should stick with the X5. I wanted more reliable WiFi but so many people on this forum post of connectivity problems with the newer Axims so I don't know about that either. Maybe Dell should make a device with more reliable hardware AND reliable WiFi connectivity. Three people in my close family have Dell laptops and they are pretty much "turn it on and connect", just about anywhere with normal WiFi. My X5 has never worked that way.
The main point for PDAs.. for me (student) is to have a powerful device that i can use at uni, and leave at home when im going out. To have a pda/smartphone (converged), i would have to carry the device around and its alot bigger and more fragile than any standard mobile phone on the market atm. I prefer to have specialized devices than one that does half of both.. unless they can find a way to compact the pda/smartphone and still have a large protected screen :)
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Actually, the new PDA (if they make one) would probably be otherwise similar to the X51 except Dell will do the following:
1. Replace WM5 with the next version ("Crossbow")
2. Double the amount of ROM
3. Call it the X52
Expect it next year, if ever. That's just based on what Dell did comparing the X50 and the X51, and considering the release of "Crossbow"
My boss was a tradeshow in TX a couple of weeks ago, he was talking with a couple of Dell reps. They told him they were out of the market, saying that the smartphones would take over. Dell also sells Palms now
Dell has always sold Palm devices. And pardon us if we don't take your fourth-hand unsubstantiated rumor as fact. You're only about the sixteenth person to make such a claim.
Are there even any new mobile chips in development anymore? Is anything in the foreseeable future going to be available to replace the current ARM chips? I've been shopping around because i'm ready to upgrade to a new pda, but I can't find anything better than my x50v that compensates for the ram lost to wm5. I can't find any device at all besides x50/51v with 3D acceleration either, the other thing I just can't do without now that I've had it all this time. Did intel seriously develop the 2700g just to be used in two devices (excluding that one umpc that needs it just to display svga)?
I have trouble finding the answers to these questions without sorting through 10 years of outdated news or ads and reviews on the internet.
Check about the new marvell chips posted on another firum here! 1.2 GHZ!!!
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