First thing I'd do - hire a designer that isn't impaired.
Whatever impairment the Dell guy suffers from is serious, and I grieve for him and his family. Whether it's out of sympathy or compassion or whatever, Dell keeps this designer going, which is kudos for them and their charity. But instead of just giving the designer an office and mostly ignoring him, they've given him the run of their product line. Bad.
Here's an anecdotal example of what bothers me about Dell design. For years the standard Dimension tower computer featured this enormous gray flap. This flap lifted up, but this fact wasn't obvious to many. Underneath this flap were USB ports and headphone jacks. The flap opened upward and the USB ports faced downward. The flap was situated toward the bottom of the computer.
So what's the issue? Consider that most tower computers sit on the floor. Assuming you know that the USB ports were there, you would have to get to them by lifting the flap which totally blocks your view of the panel with the USB ports. Then you literally are reaching down to the floor and blindly trying to plug your cable into a socket you can't even see.
This wonder of design has me convinced that Dell employees don't actually use Dell products, otherwise this "feature" wouldn't have lasted a week. Personally, because of how poorly the flaps actually functioned - apart from how tacky they looked - I've seen many offices that simply removed the flaps entirely.
Second thing I'd do - take some of that (paltry) R&D budget and heave it at some (non-in-house) software developers.
Taking a page from Google, Dell should be on the lookout for fun and useful applications and should be chucking some of their (paltry) R&D budget toward the developers. In return they should get a huge number of free licenses, or licenses for cheap.
Consider Picasa, an application that Google picked up a while ago. If Dell could find a Picasa wannabe and set them up, Dell would have the beginnings of its very own iLife suite. Toss in Firefox and Thunderbird as the default mail and web applications and Dell starts to offer a better and safer online experience for their customers right out of the box. Add in a few more apps, like maybe a simple movie editor, Paint.Net or GIMP-type image manipulators, and you start to have an interesting base of applications that make a Dell a good buy beyond simply the cost factor. And all for very little actual cost to Dell. Microsoft might complain about Internet Explorer being ditched in favor of Firefox, but is Bill G really prepared to cut Dell and its nearly 20% domination of the PC OEM business out? I think Dell can dictate what it's going to do to the industry without fear of reprisal.
Interesting side effect of including software with its PCs - Dell could instantly create whole new economies for software and support and services. If 10% of all users buying Dells actually use the included image editor/viewer/manipulator, you've instantly got the equivalent to the entire installed base of iPhoto users. That's huge. Ensure that there's an API to go along with the application and small companies can start offering complementary services, like direct-to-eBay publishing plugins or whatever. Get a small software start up that makes a killer app, that's another thing Dell can toss a little cash at and include as a perk for buying Dell - it's a cycle that feeds itself once it's started.
Third thing I'd do - streamline the product line and introduce a different pricing structure.
Simply put, going to the Dell site feels like going to a car dealership. It's not a pleasant experience and somehow you always feel like you just got jipped/swindled.
I went over to Dell and started counting how many different models of laptop they have. I stopped at 20, and I wasn't much more than 1/2 way through. What is interesting to me about this is that Dell was the pioneer of Build to Order on the epic scale. Given this, why do they need 20+ models of laptop? Is this something that their customers really demand? Why can't Dell create, say, five models of laptop and let all the holes be filled with BTO variations? Create one product per "bracket" that is intended to dominate that bracket. Brackets could be:
- Ultra-budget laptop. Small screen, lightweight processor, little RAM, small HDD, limited connectivity options. Gets people online and editing documents, but not much else.
- Kitchen-counter laptop. Reasonable screen, processor and RAM, not really hot in multimedia, but more connectivity to wireless and whatnot. A noticeable bump from the Ultra-budget model.
- Small-business laptop. Enough juice to run several Office apps without choking, nice specs generally but compromises on things like separate video cards and RAM.
- Pro laptop. Nice features, including lots of processor, RAM and HDD, separate video card and memory, plus connectivity options galore. Still, when possible, choices in parts will favor enhanced battery longevity.
- Gamer/desktop-replacement laptop. Best of everything, no compromises.
The product line listed above could be adapted, through BTO, to handle any variation of need that customers would have. There is no need to offer 20+ products. Seriously.
The other point was about pricing. Given five products, choose a fair price for a decent configuration and make that the price that's quoted. Dell essentially scams people by quoting low prices for stripped-down systems - once you have it the way you'd want it the price suddenly is back to normal. Skeezy car dealers do the same thing by offering a new Mustang for cheap (it's a Mustang without a radio, with plastic seats, wooden tires and a three cylinder engine). This is a practice that leaves customers, even customers that go ahead and buy the product in spite of everything, feeling that they just got a bad deal. This perceptions persists regardless of whether the perception is valid. Dell needs to focus some time and effort trying to build a perception that they are giving their customers a great deal. Or at least a fair deal.
One more thing and I'll stop my rant, I promise.
Fourth thing I'd do - stop trying to shoe-horn products into a business model they aren't necessarily suited for.
TVs. When was the last time you bought a TV without seeing it in person? I never have, though admittedly I've only ever bought two new TVs larger than 14" in my life.
From what I understand, Dell does a pretty good business with their TVs, but even so this might be an area where breaking with the direct-to-consumer model might be in order for Dell. Here's my revolutionary concept - spin TVs off into a separate company. There aren't any movements to integrate the capabilities of TVs into any of the other products, so just set up a company called Dell Electronics and hand over the consumer electronics portions of the Dell product line (TVs, music players, etc.). Dell still sells their consumer electronics through an online direct-to-consumer channel, but also seeks to put these particular products into big-box stores like Best Buy and Compusa so that customers can see the products with their own eyes. I've seen Dell TVs and they're nice - I think more people would buy them if they had a chance to see them outside a chance encounter at a friends house or in a non-flattering corporate environment where the thing is showing Power Points.
Dell Electronics would take a drop in profit for any units moved through the big retailers, but for customers who could delay gratification, the online channel could still offer better deals at higher margins.
So that's it. I think that Dell could be doing so much more for themselves and for consumers if they tried to focus less on cutting the bottom out of everything and focused more on making a great buying experience for its customers. Is that naive?
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