Dell Giving Away 432 Notebooks

By Nate Mook | Published July 27, 2006, 2:41 PM

For a back to school promotion, Dell is giving away 12 notebook computers every day until August 31. The offer is part of a contest in which participants create a "skin" for their laptop of choice. Winners can add a college logo or other skin to their free computer.

The individual with the best skin design chosen from 10 finalists based on public appeal, originality and creativity will receive a $10,000 check along with a notebook produced with their winning design. The 12 daily winners will be selected at random instantly, with the pre-configured laptops valued at between $948 and $1,418 USD.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

lack of freedom in design is the worst part of this. ie: everything looks the same.

Score: 0

|

Regardless of how lame Dell has been in terms of innovation (very), this is amazingly progressive thinking on their part. Could they do more? Sure. Could they do something "better"? Sure. It's a step in the right direction though: thinking outside the box (God. I hate that phrase) :(

Score: 0

|

I suppose the winner would have to come up with a fireproof one, eh?

Score: 0

|

AHHHH

My skins on fire! My skins on fire!

Score: 0

|

Oooh....are these the ones with special batteries ;)?

Score: 0

|

Never mind...
Cool contest.

Score: 0

|

Good job, Dell.

Score: 0

|

Ok, I applaud any company giving away laptop to kids, but I have to say that the whole "skin" concept is lame. I'm a PC guy, but with Mac's booting both OS's I'm very intrigued. Regardleses, I think the Apple laptops are beautifully designed. They almost look like a works of art. My point? Snapping-in some plastic "skin" doesn't make a laptop/PC "cool". Makes it look crappy and cheap to me... I know this makes a laptop/PC more expensive, but Dell should consider custom form-factors, highly integrated software and hardware solutions, not to mention, innovative things which would make people want to buy one... (i.e. things Apple or other hardware/software designers haven't done). Sadly, this probably won't happen, but this post is here in case someone from Dell is reading this.

Score: 0

|

You must be naive if you think your post is anything different that what some workers at Dell already think.

Score: 0

|

So, if i gave you a $1,418 USD laptop with a skin on it, you'd tell me to **** off?

your post holds no significance and has no relevance.

Score: 0

|

Thank you NateBBG. I can see how relevant your post is. Btw, what did you add to this thread?

No, I wouldn't say "**** off", but I was commenting on what I think of Dell's "skinning". I was on topic and, as such, the post is relevant.

Your logic is brilliant NateBBG, but what does accepting something for free have to do with whether something is a quality or aesthetically pleasing product? ... That doesn't make any sense. Who wouldn't take a free laptop? But, my post was about how Dell's skins look bad. Care to comment on that? Care to say something relevant? ... btw, I've bought several Dells (4 PC's and 2 laptops) in the last several years. I'm using an XPS Gen4 right now. It's a solid machine, but what does that matter... Their laptop skins still look horrible.

Score: 0

|

nice, i want a 1210M

Score: 0

|

o.o nice *enters*

Score: 0

|

PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

There was the freebie that no one will forget, the heebie-jeebies courtesy of Scott Guthrie, and a teensy bit clearer picture of how this cloud thingie should work.

Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?

The mysteries of just what Chrome OS is, and how much of an operating system it truly is, may be resolved today.

PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance

The effort to give users of the world's dominant Web browser the impression of quality, is a personal one for the man who leads that battle.

Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of

Maemo won't necessarily be replacing Symbian in the Nokia N-Series, but that's definitely a place where it will be found.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?

Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads

Sony has had many different download portals for movies, music, e-books, and games, and now it's looking to make a single shop for all of it.

Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest

Wide Angle Zoom: Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying....won't put an iTablet on the market.

Five improvements for IT managers in 2010

If businesses are to improve their efficiency for next year, they need to stop and reassess the basic tenets of their job.

AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs

As AOL moves toward become an independent company again, it will cut nearly a third of its workforce.

Gartner: SMS-based money transfer will be bigger than mobile browsing, search

Gartner issues its predictions for the 10 things our phones will be doing in 2012.

Don't forget to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 beta 3 today

Mozilla has released the latest beta its Firefox 3.6 browser software, just over one week after beta 2.