Dell launches low-price 'China-only' tablet to stir sales

Updated: 2011-07-30 09:44

By Tuo Yannan (China Daily)

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BEIJING - Dell Inc launched its China-exclusive 25.4-cm tablet PC in Beijing on Friday. At 2,999 yuan ($464.48) the device carries the lowest price tag of all Dell's tablet PCs, which is designed to stir sales in the Chinese market, which is currently dominated by Apple Inc.

According to the latest report from the US-based research company IDC, Dell has overtaken Acer Inc to become the world's second-largest PC maker by global sales volume, which Dell attributes to the company's development in China.

"China is now the largest mobility market globally, while it is also the second biggest market for Dell following the US," said Michael Tatelman, Dell's vice-president/general manager of North America Consumer, Global Mobility Sales, Partner Marketing.

"Our network here from a channel perspective is extremely extensive, we really don't have many places in the world like China."

Following the worldwide PC market trend, mobile PC shipments are forecast to grow and capture market share from desktop PCs in China, from 29 million units in 2010 to 70 million in 2013.

As a result of this growth, China's total share of the global PC market will increase to 23 percent in 2017 from just 15 percent in 2008, putting China on the same level as North America, according to the IT research company DisplaySearch.

Dell's latest 16-gigabyte WiFi-embedded "Streak 10 Pro" uses Google Inc's latest Android 3.1 operating system and a dual-core NVIDIA mobile processor. The device and pricing are only available on the Chinese market.

In order to cater for Chinese customers and compete with strong rivals, such as the leading domestic PC company Lenovo Group Ltd and the multinational companies Hewlett-Packard Corp and Acer, the Streak not only has a low price, but also comes with customized Chinese applications including the microblog Sina Weibo, instant messaging application QQ and localized Android Market.

Tatelman said iPads are too expensive for the average Chinese consumer and that most of Apple's 100,000 applications are "useless".

"It is not easy for Chinese customers who have already bought iPads to shift to other brands," said Kitty Fok, vice-president of IDC.

Tatelman said Dell has 9 percent of China's PC market at present and he thinks the tablet PC market in the country is still very young with huge growth potential.

"The price is competitive for the Chinese market. However, it is still too early to say, because a lot of new products will be launched this year," said Wang Jiping, a senior analyst at IDC.

Sales of tablet PCs in the Chinese market are forecast to be around 4.6 million units this year, Wang said.

Dell may launch tablet PCs based on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system and add more functions such as 3D capability in the near future, said the company.