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Lately, Dell appears to be putting extra money into better packaging, presentation, and better construction of their computers. While notable, I had not put much thought into it until recently when I read an article on Dell's new special XPS M1730 gaming notebook World of Warcraft edition with accompanying videos. Dell had introduced a new line of computers around the end of last year, 2007, call the XPS series. It's their high-end empowered line of computers, where even their low end XPS computer should still be capable of playing many computer games that are out in the market. But a new line of computers seems to be only a part of a new business approach that Dell appears to have adopted (at least where their XPS is concerned).

Not too long ago, my father's main computer in his clinic was showing signs that it will be dying in the near future, so we moved his old computer at home to the clinic, and bought him a new XPS desktop as a replacement. Therefore, I can testify that making a high-end/gaming computer line is only half of the package. In the past, Dell has been praised for their technical services being better than most other manufacturer. This year, Dell seems to extend their services to include also how their products are presented, and how the experience with Dell and its products is built around the consumers.

One of the ways a company can make itself stand out above its competitors who are producing the same product or services is to pay attention to details that enhance the customer's experience, improve the relationship between company and consumer, or increase the respect given to consumers and create loyalty. Certainly, the businesses that cater to, and provide exclusivity to the filthy rich has always did that with even mundane items such as watches, cellphones and laptops. However, if you look at Apple and how they design their products (I've actually looked inside a Desktop Mac Pro), or how they run their own shops, you can see that they put extra effort to add quality. It is probably why Apple products are more expensive, and possibly why Apple customers are so loyal. Even when considering grocery stores such as Safeway, while other stores simply focus on either cheaper products, or better quality but expensive products, Safeway has enforced that their employees be friendly and helpful to their customers. It's what makes shopping at Safeway enjoyable, and makes customers (like myself) willing to go back and check their stores first even if Safeway products are a tad more costlier on average.

When unpacking my father's new Dell XPS desktop, I noticed that Dell had spent extra attention and money in their presentation that is comparable to Apple. Since Dell is still mainly a mail/online order company, then the presentation involves how they package their products, and how their products are designed. Straight off, I noticed that the box is a higher quality cardboard box. If you look at a moving/shipping cardboard box, the material is a rippled paper sandwiched between two flat sheets of paper (one layer). With the Dell package, not only was the paper a heavier quality, but the cardboard has two layers (three sheets sandwiching two rippled sheets), making it heavier and sturdier. Inside the package was another cardboard box that had two compartments to house and organize all the manuals, restore disks, cables, keyboard/mouse, mouse pad and extra documents. Even the manual was especially packed similar to something you woulds find with a luxury car; a padded case to house the manual, instructions and extra stuff. Below that box, was the desktop computer safely secured by two plastic foam braces. Now that I think about it, Dell seems to have taken a page from the luxury car business manual of how to treat customers. Dell even had after-purchase services such as a special "membership" card mailed to my father that had the service/warranty number, serial number and other information that the owner would need to get tech support--the exact same thing you would get from a luxury car company.

The Dell PC case was also well designed. It had a black glossy finish on the front and top, silvery white side panels, a rubber lined tray inset in the top to hold any small items, and hidden blue LED indicator lights in front (with enough extra status lights for up to four hard drives) that shown through the glossy finish. It also had a LCD display with buttons on the top front of the computer for any number (and configurable) of small applications such as system monitor meters, solitaire card game and etc. And that is not the half of it; the case was also well build inside. It had a built in heat sink (with 80mm fan) for the CPU processor, and as far as I can tell, probably as good as the top two after-market heat-sinks you can get. There was an extra fan or two for interior airflow, and easy-to-open plastic braces to hold everything in place inside. There were also mounts at the bottom of the case for the first two hard drive--out and away from everything else so that the heat can be easily removed by the airflow, and not heat the other components. Instead of using traditional screws, the PC cards are held in place by a hinged bar that clips tightly in place. Even all the drives (hard drive, optical drive, etc.) were held in their mounts by sliding plastic clips.

As I mentioned before, other than being impressed that dell is putting so much money into package and computer design, I did not think much of it except that some of the expensive cost of the computer had went into the packaging/presentation, which not many people (except purchasers) will see, and which me and my father would be throwing away. I was more used to going into a computer store to look at and buy complete computers or computer parts. (You couldn't do that before with Dell computers until just recently.) Since most of the sales push was done in the store (store presentation, sales person, demo, outside box print), the package I brought home would only consist of a box and enough packing foam or brace to protect the contents from damage and keep them all organized and stationary. I've been told that computers and their accessories had not been so well packaged since those old IBM XT personal computers. Back then, IBM had used extra material to package and organize their computer and accessories tightly, and their manual was organized in a small binder made of those heavy particle cardboards with fabric coverings, and had a matching cardboard box to slip it in. Then I read the article of someone's review of the unveiling of the special limited-edition World of Warcraft package with Dell's new gaming notebook, the XPS M1730. And what I remember of my father's new computer started to make sense. Dell was trying to make themselves stand out from the crowd, create customer loyalty, and regain their old lead in the computer industry. Again, since Dell relies heavily on orders over the phone or Internet--even though Dell is starting to allow certain models to be sold in selected computer stores--Dell had the most impact on what they had direct control off, which was packaging, package presentation, and after-purchase relations.

To get a sense/feel of what I'm referring to, go click on this link to this reviewer's article, and you can see for yourself. There is a video included showing the reviewer's exclusive rare opportunity to unveil the special edition package himself. (Even the way the unveiling was done could be part of Dell's new strategy.) The video comes in three parts, but as you will notice at the end of each video (or if you click "menu" on the video controls), they are part of a playlist of seventeen videos. The other videos are worth watching as well, especially the next three videos after the three part review.