Apple downplayed Dell’s recently announced iPod-like music device and online music store in a statement to the San Jose Mercury News.
“It appears that Dell is re-branding one of the second-tier music services that will be announced soon, just like they are re-branding Creative’s MP3 player,” Apple said. “There is little original here.”
Tim Bajarin, president of the Creative Strategies consulting firm, said that Dell used the announcement of their music plans to lay down the gauntlet to Apple, Hewlett Packard and even Sony. Dell’s move echoes similar moves by Apple, HP, Gateway and other competitors. And none of them plan to give up the fight easily, it appears.
“There’s a big difference between putting your name on something and actually innovating,” Chris Morgan, vice president of sales and marketing for HP’s imaging and printing group, told the Mercury News. He pointed out that HP spends US$4 billion a year cooking up new technologies and ideas, to Dell’s $500 million. “More and more of what consumers want solved won’t be solved by a single product.”