Dell gears up for smartphone challenge

PC maker Dell plays hard to establish smartphone presence

Personal computer giant Dell, a leader in the Indian PC market, is somewhat struggling to bolster its presence in the smartphone space being occupied by well-trenched players like Apple, Samsung, RIM, Nokia and HTC.
Dell had earlier launched a marketing campaign around Christmas last year and a roadblock was used in the television ad campaign for Dell Streak. A roadblock is the term used when all the other advertising is halted and only a single brand is visible through ads for a specified duration.
The PC giant had launched two smart devices for its Indian consumers in November. The first combines features of a tablet PC and smartphone, called the Dell Streak. The second is an Android phone, called the XCD28, which is specifically designed for the Indian market.
Being a late entrant, Dell has been restructuring its marketing plans to build a new distribution channel for smartphones. Dell has also signed partnerships with telecom service providers for promoting its product portfolio.
Around 130 million handsets are sold in India annually and smartphones comprise 7-10 per cent of that market. According to IDC, the smartphone market is expected to grow 55 per cent year over year in 2011. IDC expects vendors to ship 472 million handsets in 2011, which is expected to nearly double to 982 million until 2015.
Dell eyes big opportunity in the smartphone space and believes in keeping its products affordable and on open platforms. To accelerate smartphone distribution, Dell India has tied up with phone distributors across 40 cities. The distributors, in turn, take care of redistribution to tier-II cities. The target audience is the mobile professional and Gen i.