They're either doing this so that they could offer their usual "discounts/deals" to volume orders first, then to everyone else,
or they think this is a worthy competitor to another overpriced machine R400.
The former, it's just a bad marketing strategy. Lenovo did a much better job of selling a lot of x61t's even with their design flaws (As soon as I saw it, and saw the price, I wanted it, even knowing this whole "sale" thing is a marketing garbage. Good job Lenovo, and fix my bezel).
The latter, although for that price, it's not too hard to argue that Dell has the upper hand compared to R400, that just isn't the right target. Why would anyone spend that much time and create that much hype just to go for the narrowest target possible?

Unless I'm too simple to understand their complex marketing strategy, I believe they're on their way to help other companies sell a lot of tablet pc's. Good job, Dell :D

Are there comparable Dell models that would allow one to calculate the "Tablet premium"? What is the Tablet premium for other manufacturers?

How much of the Tablet premium is likely to be manufacturing costs that will persist in the long run, and how much is due to other factors such as smaller production runs or risk premium?

Yes, that's expensive compared to other convertible tablet PC offerings from manufacturers with more presence in this segment of the market. It's been covered.

I understand the tactic. If we all make a big stink about the MSRP, especially those of us with visible pulpits in the community, then maybe we can pressure Dell into depressing the price immediately rather than gradually. The response from the community over Dell's MSRP deserves much more attention than the MSRP itself.

* If you don't like the price then make it clear by not buying one. I PROMISE THIS WILL WORK.
* Slates are this expensive and have no keyboards or hinges or any of that nonsense. They've been this expensive for a while too. Thanks for all of your help making sure manufacturer's know how we feel about this REAL problem and for helping to do something about it.
* Private parties should NEVER pay Dell's MSRP. Given that GottaBeMobile is about tablet PCs and UMPCS, and Dell is a no-show in these categories, I can't fault you for your lack of experience in ordering from them. Prepare to play the coupon code game. If you have to order through the purchasing department of a business then just prepare to pay.
* The guys over at jkOnTheRun lost many loyal readers and, perhaps more valuable, a healthy slice of their hard-earned credibility when they led the whining chorus over Apple's decision to lower (yes, those jerks at Apple made something CHEAPER) the price of the iPhone. While the guys at jk got a fancy little store credit for their efforts, GottaBeMobile came out the big winner as the obvious go-to outlet for news, information, and opinion for our community. Don't squander all of that good will for Dell's sake.

I'm crushed. After suffering through months of waiting, getting really excited...they come out with something that is underpowered and overpriced. What a waste.

The thing is that they have multi-touch. It's a small, solid, well spec'd laptop with a feature that doesn't exist in ANY OTHER LAPTOPS. I think the price makes sense.

People keep complaining that capacitive touch isn't worth $1000, but I'm sure it's the multi-touch that really ups the price.

And the thing is, when Apple announces the same damn thing for the same damn price in January, everyone is going to praise them, but omagosh Dell made something expensive and suddenly it's some massive mistake.

It's new technology on top of what appears to be a solid device, why is that such an infeasible price? Weren't the Toshiba R400 tablet or whatever with the Microsoft Sideshow display $3,000 base? Why isn't anyone complaining about that.


I don't think Dell has screwed up like everyone seems to be saying. I wish they released a cheap $1000 tablet to replace the Gateway 12" tablet that is being discontinued, but so what... it's too expensive for me I won't buy it. Any competition is good competition, and like you said the price will come down, probably quickly, putting pressure on everyone else.

GottaBeKidding: Okay, I'll bite - You gotta be kidding on some of this. Slates are just as tough to engineer because they are typically slimmer and lighter, and must account for the greater risk of potential interference between the digitizer and the other components, not to mention that the slate makers are smaller companies with lower sales volume.

As for price whining, the price point is a disappointment on the market level. It's not personal. I avoid paying MSRP as much as the next geek (I paid $200 below retail for my Toshiba R25), but laying out a price that much higher than the competition is a huge deterrent to potential buyers. And really, who wants to coupon their way to a $800 price drop when a comparable (and arguably superior) product is already available at that price?

And what version of jkOnTheRun are you reading? Not only did they not "lead the whining" but Kevin Tofel made a point of explaining that he was not upset by the iPhone price cut and that it is par for the course for early adopters.

And let's not forget, the Dell has capacitive touch but not multi-touch (yet). That price premium is for a feature that buyers can't use yet.

@Brothernod

This version does not have multi-touch, only single touch.

I'm just curious to see how the N-Trig digitizer works. I think it has a real possibility of being a huge improvement over passive touch systems, and doing a better job of handling input than the current active/passive models. I'll withhold judgment on the price until then.

I think it really shows how consumers think, considering the all the positive aspects of this tablet the ONLY thing anyone is talking about (and rightfully so) is the price. The direct2dell.com entry already has 34 comments, each one lamenting over the price and not even mentioning the positives of the tablet.

Um, first, I think when they say not multitouch, they mean it doesn't have the multitouch capability demonstrated a while back on some youtube video, where the digitizer would actually recognize multiple touches on the screen at the same time. The XT will have a multitouch as we know today, where you can use your hand or the pen.

As far as the price, personally, I don't think it's worth it for the specs. the ulv processor and 4200rpm drive are show stoppers. Anyone that's spent some serious time with Vista, will know that it loves to hit the hard drive a lot with things like the indexing service and system restore. For a light user, would probably work, but don't think you really get your money's worth, given the specs I've seen.
Also, I think to some extent it makes sense. They're targeting govt, edu, etc. They will be more willing to pay the price and probably be more willing to endure some problems and delays (given the delays so far, I would expect some bumps along the road to come). End users will likely be less forgiving, as was the case I think with Lenovo and all the x60 & x61 issues, and demand compensation, refunds, etc if problems arise. This will give dell the opportunity to get production up to speed, cause they'll likely be shipping a high volume of the same configurations to the first customers.
I expect once it's out there, some bugs have been worked out and production is up to speed, they'll lower the price to attract additional customers, who will be more likely to customize their builds when they order.

I was under the impression that the hardware can handle multiple finger touch, but the software isn't set up to do anything with it yet. The Dell product page says: "it is also the forerunner to emerging multi-touch capabilities that allow the use of more than one finger for tasks such as zoom and repositioning a picture, to name a few."

I guess that doesn't really clear it up whether it supports multi touch or not, although it implies it can.

I'm not sure you can consider comparing Dell's offering with Lenovo's an "apples to apples" sort of deal. That is, of what I know from extensive experience with Lenovo's Thinkpad X41, the Dell would have to be in a whole different league in nearly every category. I dunno how the X61 compares to its older sibling, but the X41 was truly a beast on performance. And with the whole raison d'être for a 'vert tablet being the keyboard, the X41 was a total letdown as well.

Product photos would indicate that, at a minimum, Dell got the keyboard & pointer options right and I'm hopeful that the performance is far superior as well.

But then I still say that the tradeoffs for a 'vert tablet are too steep and you're far better off going with either a notebook PC or a dedicated slate tablet - which ever suits your needs. Convertible tablets all too often simply become overly-complicated, overpriced, and under-performing notebook wannabes. Get off the fence & determine your real needs before you plunk down the nowhere-near-trivial coin on any one of these machines.