There have been rumors about this thing for a while now. I’m not big on rumors, but somehow the ones on the Dell XPS One excited me quite a bit. I purchased a Dell XPS M1710 laptop in September for my studies in Computer Science at college (and also for my own little old pleasure) and I haven’t had a hitch since. I’m happily running Vista and Ubuntu 7.10 on it, too.

The XPS One is an all-in-one machine à la Apple’s iMac. At first glance, the ‘One’ looks classy, but in retrospect maybe a bit over-styled. A bit over priced, too. The low-end model starts at 1499 USD, whilst the high-end rig retails at a whopping 2399 USD (!). We’re all pretty accustomed to Dell’s (too expensive) pricing scheme, I guess, so it won’t surprise too many folks. It’s one sexy device that’s meant for den-usage; that is (not TOO heavy gaming and) media center applications. It comes as a 20″ widescreen and includes a built-in TV-tuner.

Full specs can be found at Dell’s US-based website.

If I’m completely honest, thought, I’d have to admit to the fact that the the iMac is just much more elegant. Expensive as well, it seems to be more justified. Maybe I just like the idea of a cute white’n’silver integrated machine sitting on the desk in the living room. Black is a bit obtrusive for my liking, but hey, tastes differ.

(Apple iMac running Leopard)

While modifying my laptop’s hard drive I noticed there was a tiny partition present at the end my disk. I found the idea quite quaint, especially after Ubuntu’s installer returned an error message saying the FAT of this disk was faulty. It being near midnight I cancelled the installation and rebooted, hoping I hadn’t damaged anything crucial (like breaking the boot-sequence), whereas I didn’t really know what that plop of disk was for.

“Is it Dell specific? Does it have something to do with the recovery and diagnostic tools supplied by Dell?” After a quick Google I ended up on Dell’s own website to find out the partition belongs to another quaint application that comes factory-installed, called MediaDirect.

I had once mistaken the MediaDirect button for the power-button and my laptop booted into a custom environment that is able to play media like music and DVDs without having to fully boot into Vista. In itself a nice initiative, but in retrospect something no-one really needs.

I reckon I’ll just give it another shot and install Ubuntu anew, disregarding the error message (since the partition isn’t really necessary).

Dell gear is sturdy stuff, but as of late, the online sales model has become the culprit of Dell’s previous success. It is indeed so that consumers like to see and feel their investment, prior to definitively leaping into a sale, so it’s no more than logical to move to retail again. Ordering online has its benefits, but lagging deliveries have had to tendency overshadow.

clipped from arstechnica.com Dell has reached a deal with the office supply chain Staples to offer Dell desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, ink, and toner. Staples will begin selling Dell products both in its physical stores and online at Staples.com The move by Dell marks another major shift into retail for the computer company When the Internet took off, Dell moved to a primarily web-based sales model. In 1999, Dell finally overtook longtime rival Compaq to become the largest seller of personal computers in the United States. the shift in consumer preferences towards laptops has resulted in a greater consumer preference for seeing and using the product before purchasing it. Dell’s growth fell behind competitors like HP and Gateway Dell then fell from the top spot to the #2 PC manufacturer, behind HP. CEO Michael Dell promised “quite aggressive” moves into retail earlier this year, and Dell has already begun selling PCs in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.

ArsTechnica:

“For a long time, Dell was an unrivaled success story among PC manufacturers. But in April 2006, Dell’s expansion hit its first significant speed bump, as its growth rate began to lag the overall PC market for the first time. Since that time, it has seen its market share plunge, as HP moved back into the number one position in worldwide market share. The market share figures for the first quarter of 2007 were no better for Dell, as the company saw its worldwide market share dip to 13.9 percent and its US market share drop six percentage points to 27.9 percent.
Dell’s best bet may be trying to muscle its way on to store shelves in big-box retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City. It’s time for a change in religion at Dell, if not an outright revolution.”

It seems like Dell’s current model is losing credence amongst casual IT-consumers, which obvious caused this change of heart. Ordering online has its advantages: it lends you the ability to customize a system to your specific needs, something that’s impossible with retail boxes. I also believe the average Joe would rather be able to see (and touch) their investment-to-be, instead of browsing through various muddy pics on the ‘net.

Undoubtedly, it’ll be a challenge to get into this market again, especially after having left it so long ago.