Dell, my old employer launched the Dell XPS One.  Not bad.  It’s like a iMac, except add some decent speakers and a phatty Windows Media Center remote.  I’m tempted to pick one of these up, since pretty much the only Dell stuff I’ve been buying in recent history are their desktop monitors.  In fact, I use a 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor from Dell with my Mac mini.

Which brings me to the point of this post.  What has Apple done since the iMac that has been innovative for the desktop?  The Mac mini was close, but small form factor PCs were around then as well.  Even though Apple’s was probably the coolest.  The iMac was refreshed earlier this year, but it was merely cosmetic.  And now it’s been around so long, and successfully so, that the Dell, the maker of what’s mainstream, has adapted the innovative PC-in-a-Panel architecture and slapped their “cool-guy brand” on it.

Come on Apple.  You’ve been quiet.   Been too busy developing phones, touch-screens iPods, and switching your PC lineup to Intel?  Where is a new notebook to lust after?  Where is a new architecture to disrupt what we think is normal?  This is what consumers expect from you, whether you like it or not.  There are rumors of a tablet.  Or for a ultra-mobile notebook.

Give me a good reason to figure out clever ways to have an “accident” with my current notebook, so I can get a new ride.

My good friend, John Hull, runs Linux development activities over at Dell. His recent post on Dell’s Ubuntu offering is a great example of Dell’s latest efforts in direct relationships with their customers. For a company that has had issues scaling their support, it is nice to know their presence on the web’s best one-to-many communication medium is alive and well.

Direct2Dell has also been the source of breaking news covered by Engadget and Gizmodo in recent days. This is great execution of controlling one’s company’s messaging in the channels that give a damn.