DailyTech - Dell Drops Line of MP3 Players

Submit News

Gadgets Dell Drops Line of MP3 Players
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - February 4, 2006 11:25 PM

E-mail

del.icio.us

14 comment(s) - last by android1st.. on Feb 6 at 1:57 AM

Dell's incredibly creative advertising (left) may have had something to do with the company's lack of brand recognition

Stiff competition from Apple and others leaves Dell withdrawing from the portable MP3 player market

Dell has announced that it will cease to develop and ship its line of Jukebox portable MP3 players. Over the past year, sales of Dell's MP3 players have seen poor sales numbers. Stiff competition from others, especially Apple, affected Dell's sales performance on all high end units. Analysts are saying that Dell was unable to complete because it lacked a true integrated package-- such as iTunes. Apple meanwhile connects its iPod, OS, with iTunes on a very successful and global level. Dell at this time has no plans to reintroduce its MP3 players.

Dell MP3 DJs are unaffected by the announcement, and are still on sale via Dell's website.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

re: ipod quality

By BuLLeTBaiTz on 2/5/2006 4:43:39 AM , Rating: 4

quote:
Do iAudio players generally have a better sound quality than iPods?

u could stick your headphone plug up your arse and get better audio quality than an ipod

RE: re: ipod quality

By Xenoterranos on 2/5/2006 12:41:08 PM , Rating: 2

I've never owned an iPod or a anywhere-near-current-gen mp3 player. I was wondering if the iPod's quality suffers because of the hardware, or becuase of the bitrate cap on iTunes downloads?

Parent

RE: re: ipod quality

By lildude3077 on 2/5/2006 1:15:19 PM , Rating: 2

You can import any bitrate music into iTunes, but the Music Store downloads are at 128kbps.

Personally, the iPod's sound sounds good enough for me. Just get some better earphones.

Parent

RE: re: ipod quality

By The Cheeba on 2/5/2006 2:46:38 PM , Rating: 4

quote:
Just get some better earphones.

But then how will my friends all know I have an iPod?

Cheeb.

Parent

RE: re: ipod quality

By anandtechrocks on 2/5/2006 12:54:29 PM , Rating: 2

Not entirely true, but very funny.

Parent

...

By Taejin on 2/4/2006 11:58:27 PM , Rating: 3

uhm, maybe they had poor sales because their mp3 players blew?

RE: ...

By Connoisseur on 2/5/2006 12:37:21 AM , Rating: 1

Actually.. I have the Gen1 DJ20. It's incredibly durable. I'd buy another if I had to.. but I don't. Can't say that about Ipods

Parent

RE: ...

By MScrip on 2/5/2006 12:45:22 AM , Rating: 2

I used a Dell DJ once. I loved the thumb scroll-wheel. It felt great and gave real positive feedback. Plus when you scrolled up, it went up. It felt natural. I hate the circular wheel on an iPod.

Parent

RE: ...

By michael2k on 2/5/2006 11:53:13 AM , Rating: 2

I can :)
I still have a Gen2 iPod 10gb

I think you forgot that DJs, and Zens by corollary, were developed in response to iPods.

Parent

Question for audiophiles

By T1 on 2/5/2006 4:20:12 AM , Rating: 2

Do iAudio players generally have a better sound quality than iPods?

RE: Question for audiophiles

By Myrandex on 2/6/2006 12:56:46 AM , Rating: 2

I have an iAudio MP3 player and I have to say the soudn quality is amazing. I even think it was better than when I plugged my headphones directly into my laptop, and the battery life is extremely impressive.
Jason

Parent

Not shocked

By mjh on 2/5/2006 12:01:49 AM , Rating: 2

The MP3 market is currently very competitive so I can't say I am surprised that Dell is withdrawing from it.

Hard drive based players only

By android1st on 2/6/2006 1:57:13 AM , Rating: 1

The news blurb could note that the DJ is the flash-based player (or competitor to the Apple shuffle), while the discontinued line is the hard-disk based line (Jukebox). A bit confusing as is...