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Dell officials are addressing the rising tide of the bring your own device, or BYOD, trend with enhancements to their Wyse PocketCloud software, which gives users a safe cloud-based way to access their professional and personal data through mobile devices and remote PCs.
Dell, which inherited the PocketCloud apps when it bought Wyse Technology in April, is now making the PocketCloud Explore technology available on Apple’s iPad and tablets running Microsoft’s Windows RT operating system, which is aimed at devices powered by chips designed by ARM Holdings. The existing versions of PocketCloud apps support other devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems. The apps can be found in Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store.
Also on Nov. 27, Dell officials announced the release of the company’s PocketCloud Web app and service, which enables users to leverage the capabilities of the PocketCloud Explore apps via any Web browser. This will let customers use public computers to securely access the content—from professional office files to personal photos and music—that are on their personal and professional computers and stored in their own personal cloud.
Users need to register for the PocketCloud Web service, according to Dell.
Dell’s PocketCloud portfolio gives users a single, central app through which to manage, search, view and share content from a variety of mobile devices and through Web browsers. The large screen sizes on the growing number of tablets that are hitting the market, as well as some of the newer smartphones, are making it easier and more attractive for consumers to use these devices for both their work and personal content, according to Tarkan Maner, vice president and general manager for cloud client computing at Dell and the former president and CEO at Wyse.
“Users require access to their digital assets at their fingertips wherever they might be,” Maner said in a statement. “With the larger and more user-friendly interface available on tablet devices, users can do it all, from sharing personal memories to editing professional documents.”
Dell officials also said that the PocketCloud Companion, client software for Apple’s Windows and Mac operating systems that gives users access to content and applications that are stored on remote computers, is now being installed on all Dell XPS and Inspiron computers shipped in North America.
The company is looking to gain a foothold in the increasingly competitive tablet space while also boosting its notebook business. Like most top-tier vendors with strong ties to the PC market, Dell has been hurt by the contracting worldwide sales of desktops and notebooks over the past few quarters. Analysts attribute the weakening demand to greater consumer interest in tablets and smartphones combined with the uncertain global economic environment.
Like rival Hewlett-Packard, Dell is looking to expand its reach into growth areas outside PCs—in Dell’s case, particularly enterprise IT solutions and services. However, officials with both Dell and HP have reiterated their beliefs that their PC businesses are key parts of their respective overall strategies.
At the same time, they also are looking to gain inroads into tablets, particularly in the wake of Microsoft’s release in October of Windows 8 and Windows RT, both of which are optimized for tablets. In October, Dell unveiled its latest tablet efforts, the Latitude 10 tablet that is powered by Intel Atom chips and runs Windows 8, and its XPS 10 tablet powered by ARM-based chips and running Windows RT.