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3993

Ditch the Home/Small Business/Enterprise trichotomy

3993 points posted to Sales Strategies, Small Business, Laptops by majid 02/17/07

What products I am interested in do not correlate with myself or my company size. It used to be that high-end thin-and-light laptops would not be available in the Home segment, only the Enterprise segment. I'm sorry, just because I am a small-business owner or a home user does not mean I am ready to settle for inferior options deemed "good enough" by the powers that be.

This whole notion of three segments is a relic of a company-centric rather than customer centric marketing culture.

gtoscana
02/21/07		 I fully agree with this idea. For a Customer this trichotomy is annoying, to say the least. Sometimes, I want to buy for my personal use the lightest possible laptop (and it is classified as "Business" by Dell), on the other hand, for my work (I work in a very large company with more than 60,000 employees) we usually buy a laptop with all the multimedia bells and whistles that is classified, by Dell as a "Home" computer. This is absurd. Please let the Customer decide what product they want to buy without this artificial classification.
honmanm
02/21/07		 Not to mention that the same product may have different prices in the Home and Small Business sections - that really grates
darrylxxx
03/01/07		 Hey, I said that! On the same day too! http://www.dellideastorm.com/article/show/61913/Get_rid_of_business_classes_o... Can these two ideas be joined and combine the votes? Darryl
riddle
03/14/07		 I agree, I love the latitude series D420/520/620/820, but they're not available for home users, also the optiplex ultra small form factor would be nice, for a home central file server, easy to put out of sight because it's so small. Or even by the tv, it's hardly bigger than a bd-player.
getgreg
03/18/07		 I completely agree. But I'd also like to see Dell take it a step further and merge and simplify the product lines. For instance, merge the Latitude and Inspiron lines, and the Optiplex and Dimensions lines.

Sooner or later Dell is going to have to figure out that endless options isn't always a good thing...
tuno
03/22/07		 Actually everything is available home customers - you just have to click on a different link.
dara
04/30/07		 Exactly. If Dell is considering a move to retail stores (to compete with HP and Apple where users like myself would much rather try out the laptop keyboard and see the display before committing to a purchase), then it makes sense to have the simplest possible line up that still spans a range of sizes and costs. Apple gets by with just two model lines and 3 total models. That might be a little too simple, but it's much better than the confusing Dell line up. Of course customization of each model (processor, memory, hard drive space, etc.) should still be possible. A good line of laptops needs no differentiation between home, small business and enterprise.

A side benefit is that home users can more easily buy a 15.4" WUXGA screen which is preferable for displaying digital photos and watching HDTV.
darrylxxx
10/24/07		 Merged Idea originally posted 02/17/07
Get rid of business classes on website

Can you please get rid of the first level selection (my description) on your home page. I live in a 'home'. I run a 'small business' that might be a 'mid size business'. I hate having to choose - I always think there was a better offer if I chose another option! It is so irritating to have to choose a class - I thought US was a classless society!
Darryl
darrylxxx
10/24/07		 Merged Comment originally posted 03/01/07
Don't like to comment to my own post, but can this be joined with http://www.dellideastorm.com/article/show/62002 ?
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