Dell Finds Out About The iPad - Says Your Company Can't Afford It
March 30, 2011
According to Dell’s global head of marketing, Andy Lark, Apple will ultimately fail in its quest to bring the iPad into the enterprise market. These comments were first reported on by The Loop.
The company that brought us the unsuccessful Axim and Dell Digital Jukebox now claims it knows the future of tablet computing in enterprise and that future doesn’t include the iPad.
According to Lark, who spoke to CIO Australia:
“I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary. Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”Naturally, Lark concluded that Dell’s approach in using tablet PCs and Microsoft Windows would be the winner. Why? Because they would beat Apple on price. Lark stated:
“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying. That’s not feasible.”Of course, it doesn’t take much digging to see Lark’s numbers are just plain wrong. Let’s add it up with numbers confirmed by The Loop and for good measure, Macgasm too: One iPad: $499 Apple Wireless Keyboard: $69 iPad Dock: $29 iPad Smart Cover: $69 (yep, the more expensive one) The grand total: $666, not $1,500 or $1,600. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
