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Dell plans to announce a hard-drive MP3 player and unveil two new Axim PDAs next Thursday, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.
Dell Chair and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell will preside over a Webcast announcement when the new products are revealed. Dell is also preparing a new online storefront, according to an e-mail invitation to journalists Thursday.
The new MP3 player, the Digital Jukebox, will have a 15GB hard drive, the source says.
Slow Start
Apple Computer has received a great deal of critical and commercial praise for its IPod MP3 players, now available for Macintosh and Windows systems. Dell is apparently following its usual strategy of letting another company demonstrate a market for a particular product before entering that market itself.
The new Axims will come in more configurations, and the higher-end model will have integrated Wi-Fi, the source says. Dell is also slimming down this new generation of Axims, according to the source.
Dell will almost certainly include the new Windows Mobile 2003 operating system on the new PDAs, a transition that didn't go very well for the company earlier this year.
A line of Axims sold after the June launch of Microsoft's operating system featured buggy firmware developed by Dell. The company's plan to release an update patch on its Web site backfired when enterprising Pocket PC 2002 users were able to find Dell's patch before it was distributed and give themselves free upgrades.
A Dell representative declined to comment on unannounced products.
New Direction?
Company executives have been hinting about increasing the company's presence in consumer electronics, as noted during its second-quarter earnings conference call.
Dell introduced the Axim last fall.
An analyst said earlier this year that Dell plans to introduce a line of LCD televisions this year, and is working with TV vendors in Asia.
Competitor Gateway has likewise been eyeing the consumer gadget market. The PC company shipped an MP3 player during the summer, and recently unveiled its first digital cameras.
