Report: Dell Mulling Wearable Devices but Still Committed to PCs
Much has been made of Dell’s (DELL) strategy to transform itself from a PC maker into a solutions and services provider, and now the vendor may be mulling entering the wearable device market as a new revenue opportunity, according to a published report.
Much has been made of Dell’s (DELL) strategy to transform itself from a PC maker into a solutions and services provider, and now the vendor may be mulling entering the wearable device market as a new revenue opportunity, according to a published report.
In an account in the U.K.’s The Guardian, Sam Burd, Dell’s global vice president of Personal Computing, said the vendor is “exploring ideas in that space.”
With Dell perhaps in the front of the line of PC makers looking for new and different ways to make a buck as the market for desktops, laptops and x86 servers ebbs, the move to develop computers that people can wear—devices that truly are portable—is gaining steam.
Will Dell be the next enter the wearable device market? Maybe, but not at the expense of its PC business, said Burd.
“Lots has been written about the demise of the PC business, we think it’s an interesting area going forward,” he said.
As for wearable technology, while Google’s (GOOG) Glass thus far has received the most publicity, mobile market heavyweights Apple (AAPL), LG, Samsung and Sony either have announced or are rumored to be developing smart watches.
“There are challenges in cost, and how to make it a really good experience,” said Burd. “But the piece that’s interesting is that computers are getting smaller. Having a watch on your wrist—that’s pretty interesting, pretty appealing.”
With Dell mired in a battle royale for control of the company—which may be settled with the impending July 18 up-or-down shareholder vote on Silver Lake Partners’ and founder Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion private equity offer—smaller but meaningful questions such as new market opportunities have been shunted to the background.
And, judging by slow tablet sales—having only sold “hundreds of thousands” of its Windows RT- and Windows 8-based devices—whether Dell can make a go of it in a yet-to-emerge wearable device market is problematic at best, Burd said.
“Looking ahead five years, we expect devices and form factors to continue to change,” he said. “There will still be a need for ‘static’ computing on desktops, but there will be a real need for mobile devices. There’s a lot of discussion about how that fits into wearable devices like we’ve seen with Google Glass and watches. We’re looking at a world of lots of connected devices.”
