So I’m minding my own business, watching the midsummer classic (All Star Game for my non-baseball fans) when a very nice ad from Dell pops up featuring a new slogan, “we believe,” and a new line of small business focused computers called Dell Vostro.

I took note but really got interested after I saw the ad in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th innings. Turns out this ad buy was only just the icing of a global small business brand launch in the works.

Now, before you start firing off the “Dell blah, blah, blah” I want you to take note of something they appear to have embraced - listening (okay maybe it took a while)

The primary features that make the Vostro line small businessish came from a lot of feedback posted through Dell’s Idea Storm project and Direct2Dell blog - most notably no trialware! Vostros ship without any trial programs at all and can be stripped clean of all software if you like.

Other things like network assistant for hooking to a network or print share resource, pc tune-up, 30 days money back, and included online data back-up are all steps in the right direction if you ask me and they are also pretty nimble responses to the market, something Dell was known for in the past.

Here’s a link to a town hall meeting in New York this week where the new line of computers and maybe a new line of thinking was announced by Michael Dell. (Registration required to view.)

2:00:11 AM