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Dell exits MP3 player market

24 August 2006 6:16 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 3 comments

Dell appears to have exited the MP3 player market by completely removing all references to the DJ Ditty player from the company's catalog. Dell entered the market in 2003. In February the company cut its line of HDD-based MP3 players but continued to manufacture and sell the flash-based Dj Ditty. Like so many in the MP3 player market, Dell failed to take enough market share from Apple.

"As of last week, we did remove the DJ Ditty from our web site and we are not going to offer a follow up product," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said. "We're tightening our consumer focus in core areas like PCs, printers and TVs because we believe the PCs are the hub of digital entertainment. We always have and will continue to offer third party media players like the Creative Zen that customers will be able to purchase through Dell."

Dell's exit is understandable considering the bad luck the company has had recently. "It is high time they got out of this business, they have not been doing very well at it," said David Card, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "Nobody is doing well but Apple but Dell was doing particularly unwell. I don't know why Dell wanted to be in this market so they might as well cut their losses and get out."

Recently, Dell announced that profits had fallen by 50%. Just days later, the company announced a recall of 4.1 million laptop batteries, the largest consumer recall in history. While Apple is still leading the MP3 player market with its iPods, the competition continues the fight. SanDisk announced a new 8GB version of the Sansa e200 series, priced the same as the 4GB iPod Nano. Microsoft is also expected to enter the market late this year with its new Zune player.

Source:
ABC

Permalink to this article

SanDisk sued for MP3 patent dispute (15 December 2006)

SanDisk fights tough with Sansa c200 (1 September 2006)

Microsoft confirms Toshiba will produce Zune (25 August 2006)

Apple to pay 100 million to Creative (24 August 2006)

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Mr-Movies (Member) 24 August 2006 8:00
Dell has been crap for a long time know so it's nice to see them get beat up even when it's not their fault like with their Sony notebooks that they put their name on. You best bet for computers is to get a custom made one where you get the OS on a disk that you can use to recover down the line and get QUALITY parts instead of the PC Chips approach that Dell and some others take. Who cares about iPod's if you were smart you would buy Archos (one of the first players), Creative, or now SanDisk but I would beware of SanDisk at first since they are new to market and probably haven't gotten all the bugs out of their product. Bottom line: Don't just buy something because JoeBlow did check things out try stuff before buying. [ + quote]
mkezele66 (Newbie) 25 August 2006 15:30
well, i've known for a long time Dell pcs and customer service is crap, BUT, I had a Dell DJ after reading extensive reviews (this is when the Creative first started making their first mp3 player which was pricey and bulky and quickly replaced.) anyway, I got a 20GB DJ and I still have it. That thing has been dropped so many times and still works. They made a quality mp3 player. i've been looking at the Cowon X5. Go Christmas. [ + quote]
lemmy101 (Inactive) 26 August 2006 2:20
I never understood the fascination with everything Ipod. There are so many other quality mp3/pmeg players for much less. I have been using an Archos 320 for over two years now and it's still going strong. Like most companies Dell expanded into a market way too late to make difference. Unless Dell (or any one else for that matter) could sell there mp3 players at much reduced prices there were doomed from the start. And why is Microsoft coming out with an mp3 player??? [ + quote]