DELL Looks to Recapture Lost Sales by Rethinking the Tablet PC
After sitting on the sidelines for about five years, PC giant Dell (DELL) is making its first foray into the market for touch-screen computers known as tablet PCs.
The devices hit store shelves in the late 1990s amid high hopes their introduction would help reverse the PC industry’s flagging fortunes. Things didn’t quite work out that way. So why is Dell dabbling in tablets? Analysts say the move is indicative of a newly aggressive Dell, eager to win business lost to such rivals as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Lenovo.
Filling a Product Gap
Tablets PCs typically boast a touch-sensitive screen that lets users “type” with a finger or a pen-shaped stylus. The devices should account for roughly 7% of the personal computing market in a matter of years, from about 3% now, says analyst Richard Shim of market research firm IDC.
Since other vendors like HP and Lenovo, and even Gateway, a newly acquired unit of Acer, have had tablet PCs in their product lineup, Dell may have lost some sales to large corporate customers, Shim says. “Dell needs to protect the accounts that it has, and so at least some of the motivation to launch this product is account protection,” Shim says. “Dell wants to offer its biggest accounts the widest product portfolio it can.”
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