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When Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) released its latest Inspiron and Studio laptop PCs over the last year, the colorful lidbacks it made available were a great idea to entice consumers tired of the same-old boring black and charcoal laptop PC designs. Dell's idea wasn't anything new really -- Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has had this idea for years with its iPod music players and practically invented the idea with the original iMac design (one computer - many colors). The trick for Dell was allowing all these color choices while at the same time trying to enter retail at a furious pace. How can a retail store stock all those different colors and ensure they all sell? That's a conundrum.

While Dell still sells its Inspiron and Studio computers direct from its website, I've found that the prices generally can't match what a retailer would be offering. Take any regular Sunday newspaper ad and you'll see it -- low, low prices on many entry-level laptop PCs from all the major PC makers -- and Dell is right there with them. Competition does bring prices down for the consumer. The problem with Dell is that it can't keep all those lid colors in stock at any retailer without the possibility of a few colors not selling as well and the retailer asking for credit due to clearance sales or anything else it has to do to move out older, non-moving product from shelves.

Dell's IdeaStorm consumer feedback website is really a neat model for taking suggestions from its customer base. After reading this consumer thread, I have to wonder -- why can't Dell design its consumer laptops that accept the capability of "snap-on" color lid covers? Perhaps even keyboard-surround color changes as well? These molded plastic parts would be very cheap to have made, and offering them for free for three months would be the best (and cheapest) PR to get consumers used to the idea that they could instantly transform that new Dell laptop into a color of their choice within a few seconds. This concept worked incredibly well with the cellphone -- why not the laptop PC?