Dell considers making an entry in wearable electronics market, company global VP of personal computing Sam Burd tells The Guardian-- making the struggling PC maker yet another potential contender in a still-budding market.
"We're exploring ideas in that space," Burd says. "There are challenges in cost, and how to make it a really good experience... Computers are getting smaller. Having a watch on your wrist-– that's pretty interesting, pretty appealing."
The PC market is also getting smaller, even as Dell prepares to make itself private via $24 bilion buyout. The company has already been late to the tablet party, and Burd admits XPS-10 and Latitude 10 Windows 8/RT tablet sales only total "hundreds of thousands."
It also gave up on smartphones, killing off its Android-powered portfolio (with devices as the 5-inch Streak) and giving no mention of fresh attempts at stabbing the Samsung-dominated market any time soon.
However Burd sounds realistic when speaking on wearables, saying "I don't see any magic new form factor like the iPad-– I don't think anybody saw how that was going to change devices. But the number of [computing] devices per person is exploding."
If The Guardian story is the case Dell will be in good company-- since just about every major CE vendor is in the least rumoured to be working on a smartwatch, with similar stories covering Microsoft, Samsung, Google, LG and Apple.
So far only Samsung confirmed its intentions, with mobile business VP confirming with Bloomberg the company is "preparing [wearable CE] products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”
No actual details on Samsung wearable CE are available as yet, mind.
