Should Dell get out of the PDA market? Part Deux!

[mahstah]

There have been rumors circulating for a while that Dell will no longer sell Pocket PCs. This rumor has been purported and denounced over and over on the net.

An inside source has informed me that it is indeed true.

The Axim series is one of the top selling, if not THE top selling, Pocket PCs of all time. Dell has consistently sold the highest hardware specification PDAs for the lowest price point for years with the Axim line. Why would Dell discontinue a line that is so obviously popular and relatively cheap? High Tech Computing, the manufacturer of the Axim, reported a 71% increase in revenue from 4.2 billion to 7.2 billion in the last year. The Axim is a very profitable device.

A large majority of problems on newer Axims stem from Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 OS, which has had mixed reviews. Most problems are solved through a hardware return, although they could be fixed in the software with the right help. I would presume that 75% of returns could be avoided. Dell has taken a big hit by using outsourced cheap support. Competent resolution of software issues would save Dell millions.

WM 5 is still in its infancy and has a second edition slated for Jan. 2007. In my opinion, Dell is severely misstepping in its premature abandonment of its PDA line. Dell should not be basing the future of the Axim line on the present response to the newest OS available, even if the present response is slightly negative. Let the OS mature, let the Axim line mature with it. Please disagree if you can, comments here are highly encouraged.

Should Dell get out of the PDA market?

Vote above.

I say continue the line.

[Pocketbrain]

Hey, does your inside friend have winning Lotto numbers? I missed the Kentucky derby, so... hook me up.

(X)

[mahstah]

My inside friend is my brother who is in management at a facility in TN. Unfortunately he can't choose lotto numbers, he can only tell me what he hears inside Dell.

Dell could always change their mind, I just hope to push it a little with a letter to their marketing. I'd like to include some poll results in my plea. :approve:

[psionandy]

Clicked and voted :)

[rohanch]

Continue.

Not only do Dell make the best PDAs, they also sell them at a price that nobody else can match. OK, some people do have hardware/software issues (not me though) and the support isn't good at all, but I can live with it, and so do most of the people on these boards.

Without the Axim where would we be? I guess that many here would not even have a PDA at all! :)

I can only hope that the next release of Windows Mobile makes Dell see the light and get back into the Pocket PC market.

[benots4]

I think people are jumping to the wrong conclusion. The PDA as we know it my indeed be dead. However, I don't think that means the Pocket PC is dead. PCs are getting smaller and more powerful. The new UMPCs seem to show that smaller PCs are the future, not obsolete. The difference is the PDA (PPC of today) is a client of a Desktop PC. The PPC of tomorrow may just be a very small version of the desktop PC. Capable of being a master/server instead of a client. I've seen just as many articles claiming that PCs will be woven into clothing as PDA is dead.

The real question is will the Cell Phone industry be swallowed by the PPC or the other way around. Will Dell sell Cell phones or will Sprint sell PPCs. The Cell phone companies have the phone business locked up. Since it will most almost continually run Microsoft Windows it is only a hardware change whoever provides it.

[Pocketbrain]

"PDA's as we know it" implying what? Windows Mobile (or PPC or WinCE) operating system? A RISC processor? The UMPC will take hold, but only as it shrinks in size and begins to resemble the PPC in 'instant-on" functionality. PIM is just a matter of software after that. What I see is convergence, in a good way. It will still be a PDA in use, just with expanded capabilities. Technology marches. We expect it.

(X)