Dell pulls out of iPod race

The iPod wars took another turn today as Dell admitted that it was pulling out of selling its own branded MP3 player. Hoping to steal a march on the iPod by playing both MP3 and Microsoft’s Windows Media format, Dell threw in the towel and withdrew the device from its site a few days ago.

A few elements led to the demise of the product, first it was difficult to use when compared to the iPod. Secondly, it really didn’t have the branded ‘cool’ that Apple evokes amongst its purchasers.

Dell will continue to sell third party offerings from its website, though we suspect that its unlikely it will return to selling iPod as it originally did four years ago.

This is good news for Dell, who need to seriously focus their business model after a series of disastrous quarters, with declining profits, customer satisfaction problems and more recently the very public recall of batteries from its portable range.

For Apple this news couldn’t come at a better time – with the Creative case behind it – its free to focus on preparing to crush Microsoft’s Zune product offering before it gets out of the gate. We suspect that the rumoured next generation iPod have been delayed so that the timing will coincide with the Zune and make the Zune look ‘so yesterday’.

The handling and marketing of the iPod sees Apple at its best.