I just came across that Direct2Dell has launched its Chinese version in China yesterday. When Dell set up their online e-commerce site in year 1996, it was a huge innovation, and now they are a big company and it’s no surprise to see that they have launched the Chinese version of Direct2Dell blog cater purposely for the Chinese people. As shown in the above picture, three (3) posts posted by the staff of Dell China, pertaining to the technical support provided by Dell.

The way I see it, Dell’s foray into the blogging environment in China is a big move for them. As blogging can foster the relationships with the customers in China, it is also a strategy that attempting going direct to the customers, trying to expand their market share of the PC and notebook (laptop) industry in China. A total commitment to blogging with the customers’ feedbacks has became a vital success factor for an organization in achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

Dell Idea Storm, launched by Dell about a week ago, is a site that allowed Dell existing users to write and post their suggestions on the Dell ranges of products. Besides, other users can also vote and comment on the suggestions found on the site. It is a site that utilized the idea of social networking and blog in order to make Dell better.

For this couple of days, the most popular stories found on the site, top three are:
1. Pre-Installed Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Multi-Boot
2. Pre-Installed OpenOffice, alternative to MS Works & MS Office
3. linux laptop,
and the votes received for the above posts are 70419, 42652, and 33037 respectively at this moment.

Meanwhile, I see the impact of open source development is pervasive in Dell’s users. In fact, Linux is identified as number one threat to Microsoft. I have a friend that did not planned to upgrade his PC to Windows Vista and switched to Fedora 6 a few days ago. But until now what really drive Linux still unknown for most of people, I read some said Linux phenomenon today is a culmination of many forces, i.e. technology, culture, and etc. But the interesting questions are: Should Dell listen to its customers and starting to change its product strategies in a open source business model? How would Dell compete with other players such as HP, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, and etc. if it advocate the open source, non-proprietary software environment?