Microsoft Surface tablets may not make great impact: Dell
On the heels with Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing, Dell executives have also censured Microsoft’s Surface tablets. In its Q2 earnings call, the Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell commented that he could only expect “relatively small” sales for Surface. Responding to a query from a reporter, Michael said that the Surface tablets could only gain 1 to 2 percent of total PC sales on market.
“I think there’s an understanding of the number of units that they’re likely to sell is a relatively small percentage. Maybe in the 1 to 2 percent range of total PC units during next year,” the Dell CEO said.
Behind Michael, the company CFO Brain Gladden also made a comment. Mr. Gladden said that the company was thinking about churning out a line of diverse products for Windows 8 in order to make them competitive to Surface tablets. Earlier, Lenovo CEO and HP shared their plans to produce unique products to meet up with the clash in market. Indeed, all third party product makers are worried of Microsoft’s official tablets for Windows 8 and Windows RT.
“[Regarding] Microsoft entering the space — we’ve spent time speaking to Microsoft and understanding how they’re thinking about it. There clearly are opportunities for us as Windows 8 comes through and how we differentiate our products,” said the chief finance officer of Dell. “At the same time they’ve announced the Surface product that will be in that space and we’ll have products in there. I think you’ll see a diverse set of offerings that take advantage of what Windows 8 brings to market,” he added.
Dell’s Windows 8 projects
Dell is a long hardware partner of Microsoft. The American tech maker has been producing quality PCs and laptops for Windows. The company now works to roll out a set of tablets for both Windows 8 and Windows RT besides its PCs. Hopefully we can expect high quality products from the tech maker that has been in PC production for a long time.
According to Gladden, Dell will take on Microsoft Surface with tablets and hybrid devices. “We’re positioned to be a leader in addressing the emerging BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend with…our upcoming tablets and converged devices. You’ll see new Windows 8 Ultrabooks, all-in-ones, tablets, converged devices in the fourth quarter and headed into next year,” he added.
Windows 8; challenge for third party vendors
Certainly, along with other third party developers, Dell is also nervous about Microsoft’s own Surface tablets. Of course, if Microsoft sells its Surface tablets for small prices, it will be a great threat for the third party vendors. Naturally, there will be an obsession toward the low-priced Surface tablets from Microsoft, which can compensate the loss through licensing the software.
Several analysts have earlier pointed out the matter. Some sources recently reported that the Redmond software giant would price its Surface RT around $400. The pricing may make the device a rival to iPad and leading Andorid tablets. Yet, it will be impossible for third party vendors to value their products in the same price range. If they bring their tablets for high price, it will not be accepted by customers.
Dell and its quarter results
Anyway, it has not been an auspicious quarter for Dell. The company reported second quarter revenues of $14.48 billion, which is down 7.5 percent from the same period last year. As per reports, Dell expects Q3 revenues to fall to 2 percent to 5 percent in succession. In the last quarter, the American computer maker posted a profit of $732 million, which is up 42 cents a share from a year.
Final Thoughts
It is indeed a fact that Microsoft’s Surface tablets will endanger the third party product makers. Apart from the pricing factor, people may have a special interest toward the official tablets from the company. Moreover, the Surface tablets will be among the first line of products to run on Windows 8 late this year. As per sources, companies like Samsung, Dell and Lenovo have just started working with their Windows 8 hardware projects.
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