Dell

Six months with the Dell UP2414Q 4K display

It's been over 6 months since I purchased a 4K Dell monitor to pair with my 15" Retina MacBook Pro. In my initial post, I talked above the setup, my hands-on experiences, problems I encountered, etc. Now that I've had some time to really use this monitor on a regular basis, I'm here to provide you with a little more commentary and insight on my purchase decision. If I could go back in time, would I do it all over again?

BlackBerry, Dell not concerned about Apple-IBM deal

You would think hearing that Apple is teaming up with IBM to push further into the enterprise space would be worrisome for competitors. But both Dell and BlackBerry, who are each in the process of reshaping their businesses, say they're unfazed.

In an interview this week, Dell's John Swainson said that while he thought the announcement "made for a good press release," he fails to see how the pair can prosper. Likewise, BlackBerry CEO John Chen likened the deal to "two elephants dancing."

Macs overtake Dells and HPs of this world as most sought-after PCs this holiday season

As per its annual survey of top consumer electronics that are planned for holiday purchases, Market research firm Parks Associates reported that Mac desktops for the first time have usurped Dell and other competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer as the most sought-after desktop PCs this holiday shopping season.

Back in 2012, Apple was ranked second so this jump in popularity clearly indicates that a lot of people are now digging Apple's latest desktop Mac hardware. Back in 2011, Apple was ranked third in the category.

Not only is the sweet victory a nice testament to Apple's design and engineering prowess, it's humiliating to Dell, the computer maker whose CEO fifteen years ago infamously advised leadership of the then-nearly bankrupt Apple to sell off the company and return the money to shareholders...

Dell’s new and affordable 4K displays suggest Retina iMac is edging closer

Three and a half years ago, Apple released the iPhone 4 which introduced the world to the then-new Retina display.

In Apple's parlance, Retina is basically a cleverly-coined marketing moniker which stands for a screen with pixels so densely packed that the average eyesight (20/20 vision) is unable to discern the individual ones at normal distance.

Apple has since Retina-fied its iOS device lineup, including some Mac notebooks. With the exception of the MacBook Air which stayed at 1,366-by-768 and 1,440-by-900 pixels for 11 and 13-inch models, respectively, we've been kinda keeping our fingers crossed for a Retina iMac this Fall.

Apple instead gave us a radically different Mac Pro as its first desktop so powerful it's capable of driving three 4K displays simultaneously.

One would also expect Apple would by now have released a Retina Thunderbolt Display because the product's been unchanged for almost two years. Instead, the firm opted for the waiting tactics until Retina-grade desktop screens become available at consumer prices.

That day is now looming as Dell on Monday released two 4K desktop monitors starting at just 50 percent more than the $899 Apple Thunderbolt Display. Just a year ago, you couldn't find a decent 4K monitor under $5,000. But Dell's only warming up: by early-2014, the computer maker plans to release a 28-inch 4K monitor priced at under $1000...

Apple tops PC customer satisfaction for tenth year

Apple once more tops PC customer satisfaction. The Mac and iPad creator practically owns the top spot, ranking No. 1 in the American Customer Satisfaction for nearly a decade. Since 2004, Apple has scored highest in pre-sale expectations, perceived quality and value, number of complaints and customer loyalty.

The firm scored 87, 1.2 percent higher than 2012 and topping the 79 rating for average PC customer satisfaction. Where were the competitors? In the basement, or lower...

NPD: Apple now one-fifth of U.S. consumer tech sales

Apple was responsible for one out over every five dollars spent on consumer electronics in the U.S. during 2012, a market research firm announced Tuesday. This while overall consumer electronics sales fell for the second year in a row.

The iPhone and iPad maker also ranked as the third largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, just behind Best Buy and Walmart. Amazon and Staples rounded out and industry where only smartphones and tablets saw revenue gains last year...

Dell eats the humble Apple pie: returns the money to shareholders, goes private

Asked to comment on the hole the then nearly bankrupt Apple had gotten itself into, Michael Dell famously said back in 1997 that he’d “shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

Fast forward fifteen years and Dell’s founder and CEO is giving the money back to his own shareholders as the company he built goes private amid widening losses as the global PC market experiences a severe slump.

What goes around comes around.

Michael Dell should have known better by paying attention to Steve Jobs's advice: it indeed is best not to mess with karma...

US holiday Mac sales rose as PC shipments fell

Apple Mac holiday sales in the US rose by 5.4 percent, countering the PC industry's overall 2.1 percent decline. The new numbers by research giant Gartner indicate Apple shipped 2.1 million Macs during the fourth quarter, up from two million for the same period in 2011. Meanwhile, pretty much every other vendor experienced a decline, with Dell reporting an abysmal sixteen percent decline.

Dell's US market share slid to 19.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent in 2011. All told, Apple now holds a 12.3 percent share of the US PC market, up from 11.4 percent last year, putting the company in the No. 3 spot, right behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell. PC vendors are now seeing US households letting the computers "age out" as they increasingly use tablets like the iPad for common tasks such as e-mail and web surfing...

Tablets now comprise 1 out of every 4 PCs sold

Should tablets be considered computers? While experts debate the tech equivalent of how many angels dance on the head of a pin, consumers are voting with their wallets. Tablets sales increased nearly 50 percent during the third quarter while computer purchases are on life support.

Today's numbers from IDC reflect a continuing trend away from PCs and toward mobile devices. Globally, 27.7 million tablets were sold during the third-quarter. This follows last month's numbers which showed PC sales declined 8.6 percent to 87.7 million during the same period...