Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Dell ditch the Axim

According to The Mobility Site, Dell are to bury their Axim handheld devices. We had many bad experiences with these and aren't sad to see them go.

The big problem was the early models shipped to the Australian market came with the wrong version of Windows Mobile (or CE as it then was). Some of our clients spent many hours bashing their heads against the wall trying to explain to a polite lady in India that her screen was totally different to hers.

Those early problems seem to put Dell off because they seemed to stop marketing them here.

It seems to me this is symptomatic of Dell's problems. The Axim should be a profitable, high margin line. Instead, they continue to focus on the bottom of the market and ever narrowing margins.

The sad thing for Dell is these Windows Mobile devices are coming of age. They may be jumping off the ship just as it starts to float.