Dell eyes mobile space

2010 will be the year of smart automated mobile devices and Dell says it will invest aggressively in this market.

Dell SA MD and Africa GM, Stewart van Graan, believes this year will see a change in the way businesses and consumers use technology.

“Choice in access devices is more important today then it was a few years ago. The connected era is coming into fruition now. We will see technology having an impact on less developed countries, such as Kenya, because of the leap-frogging they will experience via mobility and the converged network.”

According to Van Graan, enterprise devices are mirroring the consumer side by becoming intuitive, multipurpose and specific, meaning devices are being designed to fit in with market demand.

In addition, social technologies are infiltrating the enterprise space in order to improve efficiency and collaboration. But Van Graan points out that this comes with security implications.

“What is important on the security side of the business is how internal data will need to be separated from public data,” he explains. “I think you'll find that when people start to interact with the company more, the technologies around the cloud, security, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) will come into play in a very integrated way.”

budgets as a result of the economic meltdown has put pressure on IT departments to consolidate and do more with less, according to Van Graan. “This is resulting in a revaluation of infrastructure and a trend to drive innovation in their organisations,” he notes.

“Companies want to do something different, which means legacy systems are coming in for an overhaul, and there's a trend to favour open standards systems to reduce complexity and improve flexibility.”

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Dell revealed it will take its tablet PC to market this year, in competition to Apple's anticipated tablet, expected to be released in the first quarter. Dell also released its first smartphone, called the Mini 3, which will first become available on AT&T's network in the US.

Late last year, Dell signed a $3.9 billion deal to purchase Perot Systems, an IT services provider with annual revenue in excess of $2.5 billion. Van Graan says this is part of Dell's strategy to move into the cloud computing and SaaS space. “We are busy finalising the deal this quarter, and it's gone very well.”