14 DAY TRIAL // Although variety is definitely not in any shortage on today's PC market, companies aren't usually actively seeking to ask their prospective customers what they'd like, but Dell seems to have done so.
When it comes to consumer opinions, IT players have a habit of first creating and unleashing a product, then studying customer response to see what went well and what went wrong.
Dell decided to take both this and the opposite approach at once when it built some of its latest and best products, particularly for the mobile front.
“Behind the scenes, Dell’s marketing group is organized into customer segments that include prosumers, families with kids, professionals, gamers and the 18–35 age group we call Gen Y,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president and general manager, Consumer Sales and Marketing, Dell.
“Our development teams are immersed in the needs of those segments. We talk with customers all the time. It allows us to focus on the things that users really want from their computers and devices.”
One of the items that bears the evidence of having been designed based on customer feedback is the Inspiron Duo, that laptop whose screen can be turned in its own frame, so as to change from a laptop to a slate form factor.
For the most part, students were kept in mind, as they could do with either a laptop or a tablet in their bags, depending on circumstance.
While laptops can be perfect for multimedia and writing papers, tablets can work better for note taking.
All in all, the 10-inch Inspiron Duo is Dell's attempt at providing such customers with both items in one, all for the price of $549.99.
It helps that the mobile computing solution runs the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. While Android is more widespread among media slates, this is more of a convertible intended for education, so it benefits from the PC functionality more.