Dell’s Johannesburg RoadShow highlights key trends
The recent Dell Product Roadshow, hosted by official African distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) at its offices in Johannesburg, reconfirmed the vendor’s commitment to both product innovation and South African channel support.
Apart from highlighting key product roadmap development, it also accentuated the importance of participating in the recently launched Dell Registered Partner Programme which offers numerous incentives and financial returns.
The Roadshow which was attended by Dell channel partners, also provided a platform for discussion on key challenges and trends in the local marketplace. The presentation, for example, notes that notebook sales have, as predicted, exceeded desktop demand; however, the latter remains an important market driver.
Gartner Inc, expects IT spend will recover in the next 12 months after budgets were slashed a year ago in the global downturn while shipments of PCs including notebooks and desktops will jump nearly 20 percent this year.
The Roadshow also showcased the company’s enterprise, small, home and consumer products which entail servers, desktops, notebooks and media stations which are all available from DCC. The notebook and desktop ranges include the well-known Latitude, Vostro, Inspiron and Alienware families.
Says Mandy Porter, Dell Business Unit Manager at DCC, “Incorporated into these products is the Dell Management Console (DMC) which is available at no cost and helps customers manage their Dell commercial client laptops and desktops. The DMC streamlines desktop to datacentre infrastructure management and enables centralisation, remote visibility and control as well as common task automation.”
Looking at key product highlights, the Dell Roadshow included the introduction of Dell’s thinnest and lightest Inspiron laptop yet – the Inspiron 11z. Weighing in at just 1.4kg and measuring only 25.8mm thin, the Inspiron 11z combines the portability of a netbook with the capability of a laptop, and has all the ingredients to make it the ultimate stylish digital companion.
The Inspiron 11z also offers a smooth, easy digital experience in an ultra-portable and super-slim design. The petite laptop packs a punch, benefitting from the new Intel ultra-low-voltage processor (CULV), up to 4GB memory, and long battery life. Featuring a HD display as standard with 1,366 x 768 resolution, the Inspiron 11z is a complete mobile experience, enabling people to be connected whenever, wherever, with integrated Wi-Fi, a 1.3 mega-pixel webcam, hard drive of up to 500GB2, and a six-cell battery offering over six hours of battery life.
The Inspiron 11z is available in seven vibrant colours, including Obsidian Black, Alpine White, Flamingo Pink, New Cherry Red, Ice Blue, Jade Green and Passion Purple.
“We often find that netbooks are misrepresented in the marketplace; people basically expect a notebook in a small form factor. This, however, is not the case as netbooks are primarily used for connectivity and gaining access to content as opposed to creating it.
“However, with Inspiron 11z we are bringing small footprint and resultant comfort of a netbook with the features of a notebook. Finally, there is now a product that offers the best of both worlds at a cost-effective price point,” comments Dion Visagie, Dell’s Channel Sales Manager.