Dell's PR Machine - Should it be more active?

I only really care about the Precision line, but as this section of the forum relates to not only Precision but also Vostro and Latitude, my question can be about all.

Do you think Dell's PR machine should be more active?

It has been quite a while since the last Dell Precision M6800 came out and yet, unless I missed it, Dell hasn't even started teasing us about what may be next.

Personally I would like them to do more, to at least say we are working on this and it might include a, b or c, and it is going to be amazing, blah, blah, blah.

What about you?

My M6600 is still going strong, but by the time the M6900 does come out I will probably upgrade if it ticks all, or most of, the boxes I need. I would just like Dell to do more in building expectations etc.

 

I agree. I do think that Dell's marketing is a step or two behind its rivals. I rarely see splashy commercials or slick marketing to announce or even tease what's in the pipeline. Obviously, you don't want to give too much away to your competitors, but something would be better than nothing.

Of course, me, personally, I'm holding out on the hope that Dell will release a convertible touchscreen Latitude with a 360 degree swivel hinge (like the Lenovo Yoga Pro) that still allows docking with the E-port.

 

That'll never happen, the yoga works because it is so thin/light/tiny. Adding a dock port to that will add a good chunk of width/thickness. I can't see them doing that unless they make up a new dock type.

I agree their marketing is meh. Although they can't send me enough flyers in the mail, I even get duplicates sometimes.

I did think they were getting better last year when they had some cool tablets come out (venue 8/11) and they had a few good commercials about it. But since then.... haven't seen anything.

I don't think they've ever pimped the precision line at all, have they? IMHO it sells itself. The market for that type of PC and that price range are already techie people actively looking for it.

 

This, pretty much.

 

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if they made this hypothetical convertible Latitude thicker, if only to accommodate the existing docking station. As long as they keep it within the 3.5 to 4 lb. range, and keep the removable battery, touchscreen, and discrete GPU, I'd be all over it. Is this too much to ask for, Dell?

 

Most sales of Latitudes are made between two guys wearing suits and shaking hands on a deal for a few thousand laptops to be purchased for a Fortune 500 workforce. The publicity hype machine doesn't work as well in that scenario, the guy on the buying end just wants to know they can use old parts they have in stock to fix the new machines and everything will be backwardly compatible. There might be some hype behind the scenes as Dell / Lenovo / HP are always communicating with their biggest corporate customers to see what needs are and how future product changes could affect the relationship. I think product leaks are the best chance those of us without inside information have to get our appetites whet for future product releases.

 

Yes, but anybody that know anything about sales knows just how dangerous it is for a company to assume something sells itself.

This may be a corporate laptop, but I mean the last M6800 was 2 years ago. I just think it would be nice if they teased us a little with what we can expect from the M6900. Or maybe there won't be a new version.

 

From a review on lenovo work station, I assume it applies on all 3(or 4 sort of) business machine manf~

http://www.anandtech.com/print/9214/the-lenovo-thinkstation-p900-workstation-review-design-101

Dell had have reasonable config price and outlet price for the competition. Look at HP

 

I’ll slightly digress laterally…

I believe the mobile Precision line is marketed too narrowly. The machines offer other valuable advantages over Latitudes besides a high-precision GPU. (If one goes for the affordable option, such as K1100M in M4800, there is hardly much of any premium over comparable GT. The price increase over similarly spec’d Latitude can be attributed to many other improvements.)

Dell’s marketing makes mobile Precisions come across as more niche than necessary, thus probably lowering their sales volume, shooting itself in the foot making R&D costs for this line relatively higher, or R&D funds for this line relatively scarcer than they would have to be.

I would not assume that every techie possesses time and willingness to research his purchase so thoroughly as to see through this narrow, side-blinded marketing and consider mobile Precision also for use cases not heavily (or at all) dependent on GPU-intensive calculations.

 

I think I agree. I do CAD, but I never had any issues with a non-pro GPU. I ended up buying the precision for the sturdiness, warranty, and serviceability.


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