Dell's Technicolor Dreamcoat (DELL)

Sometimes companies do things that seem silly and are not, and other times they do things that make all the sense in the world.  You’ll have to decide for yourself if you think this will matter to you or not, because I can’t make that determination for you.  This morning Dell announced it would start to personalize color choices for some of its laptops when it was making a new product unveiling.  Its new ultra-thin 13" laptop comes in Tuxedo Black, Pearl White or Crimson Red.  Other laptops will be available in Sunshine Yellow and Flamingo Pink.

Will a Designer-colored Dell (DELL-NASDAQ) make people happy?  This is hard to know, but presumably the company did some research before throwing this out there.  The truth is that these are already customized per order, so in a sense it is just one more step.  That shouldn’t add too much on to the costs per se.  The real question is if this matters.  It’s hard to imagine floods and floods of orders into Dell just because of a new color.  All ‘guys’ must admit that this may appeal to our other halves.  It’s hard to imagine this being the sole reason for a selection, but there are companies who have made millions simply off of personalizing patterns and colors of shells and cases for iPods, phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets. 

This shouldn’t be a game changer in the end but it could be one more small step among many.  It’s hard for me to get overly excited about new colors, and I easily recognize that the company is not trying to target me here.

Jon C. Ogg
June 26, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.