Troubled PC seller Dell is planning to pin its hopes on a much mooted craze in wearable computing.
Already it has seen its rivals such as Google, Apple and Samsung talk about wearable computing being the next big thing and is hoping to have a stab at it early..
Sam Burd, Dell’s global vice-president of personal computing, told the Guardian that Dell was “exploring ideas in that space”.
He said that there were challenges in cost, and how to make it a really good experience. But it was expected that computers were getting smaller and having a watch on your wrist was “pretty interesting, pretty appealing.”
CEO Michael Dell is preparing to take the company private in a $24 billion leveraged buyout as the PC market, which made him a household name, begins to shrink in importance. However it appears that the company is also seeking new sources of income.
Burd said that over the next five years devices and form factors to continue to change. There will still be a need for ‘static’ computing on desktops, but there will be a real need for mobile devices.
“There’s a lot of discussion about how that fits into wearable devices like we’ve seen with Google Glass and watches. We’re looking at a world of lots of connected devices,” he said.
Burd did not see any magic new form factor arriving like the tablet did. But the number of computing devices per person is exploding.
Dell has not announced any actual products in the wearable market but was looking at the technology, Burd said.
