[riverfreak]

This from Time magazine regarding Dell's upcoming entry into digital music. (emphasis mine). At least Time gives a nod to Apple.
full article

DELL DIGITAL JUKEBOX Dell promises the coolest thing about its Dell DJ will be its price � still a secret. It ain't elegant � and Dell won't say how many songs it will store, but users may like the single-thumb navigation

MAJOR COMPETITOR Apple. Every PC company is ripping off Steve Jobs' vision of the digital future. The iPod is the digital player to beat

[threestain]

Like all of the other major players scrabbling to combat the iPod, Dell is most definitely copying Apple's beauty.

But the installed user base, the lack of style and of course a complete lack of consumer knowledge will hopefully sink this (what looks like anyway) late-comer turkey. Of course I could be wrong. But then I look at my housemates dell laptops, and back at my own. Its no contest really, especially in the style conscious consumer electronics industry - people don't want ugly badly made boxes cluttering up their lives and houses - they only accept it with computers because its always been that way (except for apple of course). But in the realm of the mainstream public, many will buy a sony cd player over an own brand because of the image, and the design of the product - why else do Sony sell so many when virtually all portable cd players are the same? Public image and awareness. Apple's Ipod has it, Dell's thingie doesn't.

[herbsman]

you would think that with all the money dell makes they would hire a decent design team to come up with something that looks half decent or at least original.

their player looks like a horrible piece of crap. i would feel sorry if i saw someone walking down the street using that thing while i have my ipod.

[icruise]

Dell's never spent much money on R&D -- that's how they keep their prices low, I guess. In this case, they apparently just used someone else's designed for their "Dell DJ."

[bracken]

Originally posted by Icruise:
Dell's never spent much money on R&D -- that's how they keep their prices low, I guess. In this case, they apparently just used someone else's designed for their "Dell DJ."

Yup.

[pdot]

Originally posted by Icruise:
Dell's never spent much money on R&D -- that's how they keep their prices low, I guess. In this case, they apparently just used someone else's designed for their "Dell DJ."

Not true. One of my issues of Technology Review from a few months ago lists the R&D spending of top companies and from what I remember, Dell R&D spending was rather high. I think it may have been higher than Apple's. I'm not sure what they use it for, however. Probably on lawyers to prevent copyright lawsuits.

[icruise]

Originally posted by pdot:
Not true. One of my issues of Technology Review from a few months ago lists the R&D spending of top companies and from what I remember, Dell R&D spending was rather high. I think it may have been higher than Apple's. I'm not sure what they use it for, however. Probably on lawyers to prevent copyright lawsuits.

Where the hell does it go then?