Dell’s announcement this week of their high-end Adamo line harkens back to those glorious days of yesteryear, you know, before the crash/recession/ whatever, when flaunting wealth for wealth’s sake was all the rage. I’ve got nothing against making money the old-fashioned way, you know, by working for it, and even via investing (as opposed to today’s trading-driven methodology), which will be possible again some day, and perhaps sooner than we think given this week’s market developments. But conspicuous consumption in the PC domain regardless makes no sense, and certainly never will. What are these guys, then, thinking?
I’m sure planning for this (albeit stylish) notebook began long before the aforementioned crash/recession/whatever began, and I’m sure there’s a market for such items. This one is basically a Vista-running (so you know I’m not going buy one, and wouldn’t even if I were a zillionaire) Macbook, machined aluminum and all. Apart from that, I couldn’t find anything in the specs that differentiates this product from a Vista-based notebook selling for a third the price. It’s once again an example of the triumph of style over substance, and even features an irritating, flash-based Web site reminiscent of, well, those for high-end cars. And it’s almost as if Dell knows the price is too high; some high-end (>US$3000) packages for the Adamo run Vista Home Premium (not Business) and include Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (hey, isn’t it 2009, Microsoft?), which cannot legally be used for business.
I look at PCs as tools, not fashion statements. Mine take a lot of abuse from countless days on the road, and tend to get replaced fairly frequently, these days by cheap (US$300), LINUX-based MIDs, the old ones being stashed around the house just in case I need to get to something computational quickly. Mobile electronics should be utilitarian, with the stylish (but functional) iPhone an example of what should be the high end. The Adamo reminds me those diamond-encrusted cell phones that are flashed (pun intended) by the wealthy but insecure who need constant attention. Sure, someone will whip out their Adamo in the Big Meeting, followed by a full ten seconds of ohs and ahs, and then its owner can confidently and even stylishly explain why this quarter’s sales are in the dumper. Sorry, even a piece of art running Vista can’t solve that on its own.
Have you ever noticed that there’s an inverse relationship between the personal (as opposed to positional) authority of wearers of high-end watches and the value they actually contribute? Same deal here. Adamo is out of tune with the times, and always should be. And, while we’re at it, the Aluminum Macbooks are a bit pricy as well. But if you want OS X in a portable package, that’s the option. At least here we can make an argument about ROI in the form of improved productivity, and perhaps even lower TCO than a PC if one substitutes iWork for the insanely overpriced Microsoft Office for the Mac.
