The Last Dell Upgrade?

rsx · 12-13-05, 05:35 PM

You may want to see this interesting link:

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Gl...ssbow_n_Photon

It is at Brighthand.Com, and discusses future versions of Windows Mobile.

The last paragraph is quite telling:

"Although Microsoft would prefer to make upgrades available to everyone, some of its licensees would rather users have to buy a new device in order to get the upgrade."

So, now that Dell has had more than its share of grief from OS upgrades of its X5 and x50 series PDA's, maybe they will just make you buy a new PDA if you want a new OS.

TFJetfire · 12-13-05, 09:25 PM

Gee do you think Dell is one of the "licensees" in that article?

rsx · 12-13-05, 09:43 PM

If you were Mike, wouldn't you be?

maflynn · 12-13-05, 10:08 PM

Well that's kind of a well duh statement in the article.

Dell (HP and others) make there money on the hardware while MS gets about the same amount of $$ for each license. If upgrades were offered for all PDAs then Microsoft would get more moola.

The upgrade that Dell offered is at best a break even propasition at worst a loss leader. Being consumer friendly they opted to provide the upgrade on some of the newer/higher end PDAs. Clearly if they had their druthers they'd have people buy the X51v instead os charging people a nominal fee for upgrading and then of course handle all of the tech support for those that had issues updating their axim.

So on one end, you have the software company wanting to maximize licensing as it means more income, and on the other, upgrades mean more support costs. No surprise that upgrades have been limited and will be even more so in the future.

Mike

netsyd · 12-13-05, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by maflynn

The upgrade that Dell offered is at best a break even propasition at worst a loss leader. Being consumer friendly they opted to provide the upgrade on some of the newer/higher end PDAs. Clearly if they had their druthers they'd have people buy the X51v instead os charging people a nominal fee for upgrading and then of course handle all of the tech support for those that had issues updating their axim.

Whil I agree for the most part with what you said in this whole post, I think were Dell to have spent a bit more time or the upgrade and a hellofa lot more time on the Quality Assurance part of the upgrade they would have had no where near the problems that they do with WM5 upgrades.

Quality Control seems to be a lost art anymore, and the problem is companies have yet to realize the amount of money they could save on the backend of a rollout like this if they just spent some time and money on the front end. It always costs more to support a piece of poop than it would have to properly develop the product...

$30 per unit sold for an upgrade could mean a ton of extra money coming in if you didn't have to deal with a support nightmare!

pintomp3 · 12-14-05, 12:46 AM

it would be very short sighted for manufacturers not to provide upgrades. you would be a lot less likely to drop $500 on a device that won't be current for long. especially if some manufacturers provide upgrades while others don't, everyone will flock to them. thank god for competition. dell has historically been good about providing firmware and driver updates even on really old products, so i would be really surprised if they went this route.

AKAJohnDoe · 12-14-05, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by pintomp3

you would be a lot less likely to drop $500 on a device

Which tells me that comoditization will continue and consequently the both the prices and the differences in the devices will decrease.

rsx · 12-14-05, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by pintomp3

it would be very short sighted for manufacturers not to provide upgrades. you would be a lot less likely to drop $500 on a device that won't be current for long. especially if some manufacturers provide upgrades while others don't, everyone will flock to them. thank god for competition. dell has historically been good about providing firmware and driver updates even on really old products, so i would be really surprised if they went this route.

Unfortunately, upgrading an OS is not like adding 3rd party software. I think that most of our computers are designed with a particular OS in mind. I have never had a completely flawless OS upgrade of any computer, especially if it is a one or two year old design. Even when the new OS works, it never runs as well as it does on new hardware with components designed for that new OS.

I suspect that this may be why the x51 series seems to have fewer problems with WM5 than the upgraded x50's. Perhaps there is a reason other than money that they want you to buy new hardware for a new OS.

Or not.

12-14-05, 04:49 PM

My opinion is that you should ignore everything Ed Hardy says. Many times he is just being a good writer to attract attention and make small things look big.

Tankman · 12-14-05, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by TFJetfire

Gee, do you think Dell is one of the "licensees" in that article?

We're sure Dell would rather sell new but, I do believe they're BIG enough to shoulder responsibility. And, they're doing so.

Problem is releasing a new OS without enough R&D.

Lots of happy WM5 users out there. I'm still stickin' with WM 2003SE. :)