Dell Delays Its Digital Music Player; Going Ahead With Media Software
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Dell, which is having trouble catching up with its release schedule of new products, is delaying its supposed launch of a low cost digital music player that was planned for this holiday season. We noted earlier that the new Dell player was supposed to go on sale by September, and would have integrated software and an online music service. Now WSJ reports that it is delaying the player launch indefinitely, but will go ahead with launching its Zing software that organizes downloaded music and movies on PCs. The Zing-based software will come pre-installed on a series of new Dell notebook computers and other devices.
Similar integrated strategies have been tried by others likes Rhapsody, Napster (NSDQ: NAPS) and others, to minuscule effect, and Dell, despite its internal delays, may have figured that part out too. Even Dell tried it with MusicMatch, before it was bought by *Yahoo*, and later it tried with *Napster*. When Dell stopped making music players in 2006, its U.S. market share remained below 3 percent...it started in 2003. For perspective, *Apple* had 71 percent of the U.S.
Dell's also lagging behind on launched for its new laptops, as the WSJ story details.
By Rafat Ali