One specific thing made me wince when I read that Dell is working on a new MP3 player (a second stab at the market). I'm fine with a new Dell player. There is certainly room for more MP3 players, although I think the odds that Dell is going to either grow the market or capture all but a sliver of Apple's share are very slim.

No, the word that did it was subscription. From Justin Scheck's article in today's Wall Street Journal:

Software would connect the device to an online subscription service that Dell expects to launch later this year. Through licensing agreements with online music providers, Dell's new service will let consumers download songs and move them between devices like PCs and cellphones. While the device Dell is testing is focused on playing music, Dell's new service also would allow movies to be downloaded and displayed on PCs, for example.

I'm reminded of a line from Seinfeld in which George says like, "Thousands of years people have been trying to have their cake and eat it too. ... Where do you get the ego?." It's like Dell is saying subscriptions haven't taken off because nobody did them right, not because the subscription's entire value proposition fails with all but 0.5% of the U.S. population.

Dell's hardware will be based on software created by Zing, a company it purchased last year. Zing's technology thus far has been centered around subscriptions and allowing devices to connect to one another and to a network. Zing software is included on portable satellite radio players and the Sansa Connect player that works with Rhapsody.

There are no additional details, but the mention of a subscription is suprising. Just when it was become abundantly clear that subscriptions based on DRM have more downside than upside, companies are still giving it a go. DRM-free tracks could be put on a Dell device (or any of them) but it appears Dell wants to push the device's interaction with the subscription service as a key selling point. Since the service could be far different than what has been attempted to date -- it would have to be -- I'll reserve further judgment until more is known.

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