This afternoon in Beijing I'm taking part in a global Webcast to announce two new Vostro laptops and two desktops designed especially to meet the needs of small businesses, government and educational institutions in the world’s emerging economies.
The two new Vostro laptops (the Vostro A860 15.6 inch and A840 14.1 inch) and two desktop models (the Vostro A180 and A180 mini towers) are being introduced in countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America over the next several weeks.
These new products will primarily be sold through our channel partners in emerging countries—a first for Dell.
These systems:
- are easy to manage and deploy, offering Ubuntu or Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic operating software;
- are designed to deliver world-class quality and reliability;
- come with support to meet unique customer needs; and
- provide affordable access to today’s higher level of basic computing needs.
Today’s announcement also builds on Dell’s leading momentum in mobile computing: introduction of our Studio laptops in June; the new Latitude E-family products, launched two weeks ago, which offer freedom from business as usual; and more new mobile products to come. With today’s products we’re bringing great, new mobile technology to customers in the world’s emerging countries.
Those customers tell us that the cost of technology, especially mobile technology, is too high. They want affordable systems that are high-quality and highly reliable. They want technology that’s easy to deploy and maintain. They want great service, and support that’s easy to get and pay for.
We’ve designed these new Vostro products to meet those needs. At Lionel's post on Direct2Dell, Kirk Schell, who leads our global product-development center in Shanghai, describes the design concepts behind these products. We’ve posted more images on our Flickr account. Also, here is a recorded version of today’s launch event.
There are more than 72 million small businesses worldwide. And hundreds of millions more that will be started over the next few years. We’ve seen how technology is often the key element in why smaller companies succeed—or fail. This is particularly true in high-growth economies. Technology makes it easier to market, sell and support products and services.
Those benefits of technology mean opportunity for customers and, in turn, opportunity for Dell and its partners, for you. Today is another illustration of our intention to together lead the industry in providing great technology to high-growth and emerging economies.