Dell concedes defeat again

Dell has apparently conceded defeat in the MP3 player market, as reports indicate that the company is no longer selling any of its MP3 players and has removed most referencs to its DJ Ditty MP3 player from the Dell website. Electronista notes that the Texas-based Dell originally entered the digital audio player market in late 2003 to capitalize on the rapidly expanding popularity of Apple's iPod; however, despite attempts to compete with Apple on features and price, Dell has consistently struggled to find significant marketshare. Earlier this year, Dell discontinued all its hard drive-based players in favor of the lower-end DJ Ditty flash player. "As of today, Dell has quietly admitted its long-term failure in the market by removing the DJ Ditty and most references to it from the company website. Users of Dell's DJ forums have also reported that no Dell-branded players remain in the monthly catalog and that the DJ Ditty had been discounted earlier in the month," the report said.

In recent months, the company has struggled to leverage its operational superiority and direct model, posting dismal second-quarter earnings, including a decrease of 50 percent in profit; the company also recently anounced an informal probe by the SEC and the largest consumer recall ever, affecting 4.1 million batteries used in its laptops. Dell was reportedly aware of the battery flaws since last October.

In addition, the company said it will turn to AMD for CPU chips for its desktop lines, following an announcement earlier this year that it would offer servers with AMD's Opteron line.

by MacNN Staff