Dell stops selling last Adamo

Dell closed a chapter in its history today by withdrawing the Adamo 13. A search for "Adamo" now turns up a message that the entire line is "no longer available." Buyers are instead turned to the much heavier, much thicker but faster XPS 15 and 17.

The Adamo 13 was first launched in March 2009 as a conscious attempt to outshine the MacBook Air at a time when Dell's global product lead at the time, Ron Garriques, hoped to create the same cachet around Dell as existed around Apple. Although high quality, the system was a full pound heavier than the Air, used a slower ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo and cost $200 more than its Apple counterpart, albeit using an SSD as standard well ahead of the Mac. A quick Apple price cut and speed update kept it well out in front and led Dell to eventually improve the speed at the high end.

The system eventually saw major cuts in price as well as a brief attempt to outdo Apple in thinness with the Adamo XPS. Dell quickly dropped the XPS version after a few months, bringing it back to shelves briefly only to phase it out once more.

For Apple, the MacBook Air has still been one of its lower-volume Macs owing to a high relative price for the features, but it has always sold well enough that the company felt little pressure to drop prices. The new MacBook Air both increased sales by offering a smaller, more affordable model as well as increasing speed and features to almost entirely outperform Dell's equivalents. Dell hinted at the end of the Adamo 13 shortly afterwards as it cut prices multiple times in what's now known to have been an attempt to clear the last units from stock. [via CNET]

By Electronista Staff

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Intel, computers, Dell, Core 2, MacBook Air, Apple, Adamo, Adamo XPS