Late last week, Michael Dell, CEO of Dell sent a company-wide memo. What was special was that the memo hinted at the possibility of Dell re-entering the retail channel, not just selling directly. This probably comes as a result of declining market share and revenue.

Sounds possible, but I don’t think that’s going to help.

Let’s go back to basics. People usually buy stuff if it serves a purpose (a toaster), or if it’s really special (an iPod). The trouble with Dell is that there are better alternatives that serves the purpose, and they don’t have anything special. Apple has cool products, Toshiba has sleek portables, and HP is reliable notebooks. What does Dell have? Nothing.

At this point, I will say that I used to own a Dell Inspiron laptop. The keyword here is “used to“. There was never anything special with it. You could easily find sleeker, lighter and better looking laptops from Lenovo, Toshiba and Apple. I only bought the Inspiron because it was cheap, but that’s not a valid argument anymore.

I feel that Dell needs to come up with something innovative. Something special. Something to “wow” us, and I’m not referring to Vista. Forget changes to the retail model. It may bring customers in the short term, but in the long run, Dell needs something with more substance.

What do you think?