Dell (DELL) wants to accomplish what no other company has been able to do over the last five years. It wants to hunt down and kill the Apple (AAPL) iPod like a mangy dog.

That probably won’t work, but Dell has as good a chance as any company for getting a little piece of the music download and digital media player pie.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "In recent months, Dell has been testing a digital music player that could go on sale as early as September."

Dell has the money to put into marketing and building the new product. Its annual sales are about twice Apple’s and it is a master for selling electronics online. Dell.com already sells TVs, video games, MP3 players, cameras, and GPS devices.

Online audience measurement firm Quantcast says Dell.com is the 73rd most visited website in the US, with monthly traffic of over 10 million people. Apple.com’s traffic is about 50% greater than that.

All those numbers beg the question of why anyone would want to buy an alternative to the iPod, which has already sold over 150 million units since it was a launched. Most quarters, Apple still sells over 10 million iPods. Its iTunes music store is the No.1 digital download operation in the world.

Dell may believe that having 5% of the market, if it can get there, is better than none.

Slim pickings.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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