I love shopping for gadgets. Sometimes I do it just for fun. I used to look at ads in the back of Macworld magazine and pick out components and peripherals for an imaginary computer system. Well – recently I purchased an Alienware m11x “gaming ultraportable” computer. It has an eleven-point-six-inch screen and a gigabyte of what we used to call video RAM.
I’ve also been reading a blog called, “Ken Segall’s Observitory”. Ken Segall was on the team that came up with the name “iMac”. He is therefore something of an expert on branding and advertising. If I understand correctly, he has done some work with Dell to help them improve their brand image. If he was working with Dell, I think he’s given up.
Two things make me think this: first, he often simply makes fun of Dell’s branding; second, Dell is completely beyond hope. In a recent blog post he hits the nail on the head for what I’ve been going through
… [The chatting rep] recommended Inspiron. When I asked about Latitude, he explained, “Latitude is for business, Inspiron is for home.” Hmm, I’d use it for both. So what’s XPS, I asked. “That’s for higher performance.” Oh. I wanted that too.
I get the feeling that they don’t have any product people at all. But they have to. You simply cannot build all of that crap without managers. Perhaps this is the basis for the problems – they have managers but no leaders.
When I had decided to order my m11x I went to my company’s “employee purchase program” link. This supposedly gives a discount to Avanade and Microsoft employees. The web page declared that if I found a better price then they could beat it, so I thought I’d give them a call.
While we were waiting for something or other she was asking me all kinds of questions about what software I wanted to run. “Will you run productivity applications like Microsoft Office?” What has that got to do with anything? Are there any computers for sale that can’t run Office?
A couple of days ago I went in to BestBuy to see what their top-of-the-line machines were. While I was there they told me that I should set up a BestBuy for Business account. I gave in and let them have my phone number. The guy taking my information asked when the best time to contact me was – so I told him Thursdays, but not between ten and eleven.
The next day (Tuesday) I got a call from BestBuy for Business at ten AM (thanks). The guy asked me what kind of computer I was looking for so I said, “small and powerful.” He said, “that doesn’t give me a lot to go on…”
Excuse me – is that my problem or yours?
He actually asked me if I wanted a netbook. Do I need to explain what I mean by “powerful”? I told him I was looking at the Alienware m11x and the ThinkPad x201. They both had Intel Core i7 processors. You’ll love the next part: “what about RAM?”
“As much as will fit.”
“Hard drive?”
“As big as they come.”
It actually makes me a little bit mad just thinking about it.