Great brands have depth. They stand for something. Their products are a good representation of their values. Their customers tend to remain loyal, even when things get a bit wobbly.
On the other hand, some companies have only a thin shell of a brand. It’s less genuine, more of a veneer than a true representation of what they believe. And the thinner the brand, the more temporary customers can be.
Case in point: Dell.
Dell has just announced that their Android-based Mini 3 smartphone will soon be coming to the US (it’s currently on sale in China). So far, so good. Welcome, Dell. You have to figure that if Dell makes it, they must believe in it, right?
Well, not so fast. A quick glance at the online Dell Store shows that Dell is doing a lot of believing these days. They’re pretty much hawking every smartphone brand under the sun. BlackBerry, Palm, Samsung? You bet. Motorola, LG? No prob. Droid, Pre, Bold, Exclaim, Backflip… Dell sells ’em all. HP, in comparison, sells its own smartphone — and nobody else’s.
The message is pretty clear. Dell is more concerned about making a few bucks than serving up the technology they really believe in. If they’re just as happy to sell me a Samsung Exclaim as they are a Mini 3, exactly what does the Dell brand stand for?
Then again, if you buy one of Dell’s competitors’ phones at the Dell Store (I feel silly even typing that), you probably stand a better chance of getting the most advanced software. Dell glosses over this little detail in their Mini 3 press release, but preliminary word is that their new baby will ship with Android 1.6, while Nexus One is running Android 2.1.
As my favorite philosopher Charlton Heston once screamed: “It’s a mad house!”
Tags: dell, dell mini 3, dell smartphone, ken segall
