Dell: Customers Central to Our Future

In his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday, Dell Chairman and founder Michael Dell said that "customer imagination" would be the most important driver for innovation during the year.

Dell also used the platform of the keynote to introduce several new products, including a new XPS desktop gaming system, new flat-panel monitors, and a home media suite. He said that direct consumer feedback would also influence the company's moves going forward.

"It used to be that people had to keep up with technology, but now it is about technology keeping up with their imagination," Dell said. "Innovation not only includes the development of new products, but also new services and how technology is integrated into our lives."

Pointing to the increase of fiber-to-the-home, he said the next "killer app" wouldn't be a piece of technology, but rather how consumers decide to use it. Dell said telecommunications companies were making the right moves in offering fiber, and urged the entire industry to step up and accelerate deployments.

At the center of Dell's product announcements at CES is the XPS 710 H2C. The $5,499 system is engineered to bring peak performance to gaming applications. Among the features it an innovative two-stage cooling process using a liquid-to-heat exchanger.

No doubt, Dell enthusiasts are hoping that this launch is much smoother than last year's models: Dell had quite a bit of trouble shipping the systems to customers in a timely manner.

Also announced are a 27-inch and 22-inch widescreen monitor, priced at $1,399 and $329 respectively; and a Home Media Suite bundled that would ship around the launch of Vista.

That package would include XPS 410 desktop, digital TV tuner, a 27-inch flat panel monitor, speakers, Dell All-in-One 966 printer, and an 802.11 draft-N router and power line AV bridge. It will be delivered with all cables and adapters required for a typical home installation. Dell also will offer optional in-home service to set up the equipment.

Dell also plans to eventually offer customers the capability to migrate data as well as backup important files through a new service that would be pre-installed at the factory. Service is expected to begin later this year, Dell said.

"Consumers have repeatedly told us they'd like this type of assistance and we're answering the call," he added. "Dell is uniquely positioned to offer these personalized services because of our direct model - nobody else can do this the way we can."

However, most important to Dell is what its customers are doing with the company's technologies. "We are highly motivated to keep up with their ideas," he said.