Dell Says it Can't Build Enough XPS 13 Ultrabooks
Dell is having trouble metting the high demand of its XPS 13 Ultrabook.
Sam Burd, vice president of Dell's Consumer and SMB (small and medium business) product group, said that the company is having trouble meeting the current demand for its new XPS 13 Ultrabook. Without disclosing actual numbers, he insisted that Dell is seeing just under 3 times the expected demand.
"We can't build enough of them at the moment," he said.
The higher-than-expected demand is a good thing despite Dell's frustration, indicating that consumers are looking to Ultrabooks as possible alternatives to Apple's MacBook Air and iPad tablet. The latter device is selling at more than 10 million units per quarter, a mobile domination that many would like to see toppled by the new Ultrabook sector.
But the problem with the mobile industry is that there are too many devices selling for around $399 or more. Many manufacturers have now committed themselves to follow Apple's lead by trimming the fat and focusing on several higher-priced products that offer a better experience. The iPad is a perfect example of a narrow focus: consumers are willing to shell out $600 or $700 for a solid experience, knowing that Apple is focused on that one specific hardware set instead of multiple tablets in an underwhelming portfolio.
Yet Dell can move its $999+ XPS 13 Ultrabook because it straddles the line drawn between the corporate and consumer sectors. "Half the sales of the XPS 13 are coming from enterprise [large corporate] customers. That's a lot of its success," Burd said. "We can load a company's image on the system, we can put custom BIOS settings on the system, an asset tag so they can track it."
He also added that the Ultrabook may be more appealing than other solutions because it borrows a few notable traits from Apple's tablet. "We took the things that an iPad or smartphone does well, in terms of booting up quickly, being highly mobile...and then took that even further. You can do productivity and not lose anything," he said.
Burd indicated that the next Ultrabook may incorporate touch-based controls to support Windows 8, but cost will likely determine when that feature will become available. "Touch adds cost...part of it becoming standard is that people need to see the value of that. It's still a pretty significant added cost, adding capacitive touch," he said. But he added that sister and brother products to the XPS 13 are on the horizon.

The higher screen resolution is not an issue in enterprise environments. Elitists on the internet are the only ones complaining. And the Folio 13 does have a backlit keyboard.
It does have a backlit keyboard?
I'd still rather spend a bit more on a MacBook Air.
Max supported RAM is 4GB and comes with a POS 1368x768 no viewing angle washed out LCD. By the time you put decent HDD and CPU in it the price is $1500+, typical Dell ripoff.
MacBook Air will be good for your personal use(I got one), but it's not going to go well in a corporate where most of support are for windows, and you will have a headache of compatibility with everyone else in the company.
Overall, I still think that Apple has just better laptop for nearly the same price. However, for businesses XPS seems to be a solid machine.
Might be good if you actually had some IT knowledge before you spew opinion. My company issues Windows and Mac laptops. The general word is that Mac's are easier to maintain and less of a headache. Particulary around having to rebuild them after they pick up a virus (and yes, we have all sorts of Windows antivirus running and we require VPN to access the corporate network). Our IT says it has never had to rebuilt a Mac.
Wow
AMD stands to make some Ultra bank with Trinity
I think we can learn something here. Not all corporations are the same. Blanket statements that cover all of them are likely to be occasionally, if not frequently, wrong.
Additionally, tell your IT department that it's 2012 and they should probably start imaging machines instead of rebuilding them. ;-p I've done both and they should invest the time into learning how. That said, not having to do either (if that is the advantage Mac's give) is pretty appealing, although I've definitely had compatibility issues with Mac using coworkers.
Only possible reason I can think of to go Dell is the Gorilla glass. (Due out sometime soon?)
The base model isn't even cheaper than the upgraded Acer... And god help you if you decide to put some common options on it!
(Still looking for a Toshiba ultrabook for myself.)
When you run active directory/windows domain you can run into problems with compatibility with Mac pc's, for simplicity's sake it's better to just stick to an all windows environment.
Yup...we tried the Mac thing too...lasted about a year. We still have two holdouts that insist on having their Macbooks...however they also have to carry Dell laptops because they simply can't accomplish everything they need to with the Macbooks.
Of course we had less problems with the Macs...we weren't really able to use them. Our PCs are used 24/7, thus, more issues. That said, out of 3 servers, 40 workstations and 22 laptops, i've had to re-image ONE LAPTOP twice this year. ONE. Pretty hard to complain about that.