Dell Technologies showcases new remote working technology at CES 2021

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley spoke with Dell Technologies Client Solutions President Sam Burd about the new remote technology Dell is working on as many people contunue to work from home. He also broke down tech gains in the gaming world and what else to expect at the virtual CES 2021 event.

Video Transcript

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DAN HOWLEY: We're here with Sam Burd, the President of the Client Solutions group at Dell. And Sam, what we want to focus on, I guess out of the gate, is obviously the big news that CES not being in person because of COVID. The coronavirus pandemic being an ongoing problem for most of the world. And I kind of want to get your take on how that fits into the design languages that we're seeing for new products from Dell. Obviously, the work from home environment is a big deal, so how does that kind of work into what Dell has been working on in the past year knowing that this is something that's been ongoing?

SAM BURD: Yeah, I think, Dan, like you said, it feels very odd to be talking to you at CES and sitting here in my house looking at you in your house, so it feels very un-CES-like. It doesn't, kind of a storm rolling through here, so a little different environment from being in Las Vegas. You know, your questions a great one though. We have been thinking about how the world's changed and the role of technology and the PC's played in the past year in keeping people connected, allowing them to work from home, allowing them to learn from home, allowing them to connect and collaborate with, you know, friends and family, and you see that showing up in the product designs that we're announcing here.

So building intelligence and capability into this PC, an old friend that many people have rediscovered over the last nine months, and making it an amazing tool for that. So if you look at our, you know, latitude line of products, we're building in a product we call Dell optimizer, which learns you as you use the system, and then tunes things like the apps, it tunes battery management, it tunes audio, other capabilities on the systems so that it works for you. We've got a really great announcement too there. We have the world's first automatic shutter, so think about the privacy that people wanted. And a year ago, I had people sticking, you know, stickers over cameras, because they didn't want-- they were like, OK, I got to get this computer. It has a sticker. Let me figure out what sticker I'm going to stick on it.

A year later, turn the clock forward, and it's like, all of us are using cameras on our PCs all the time. We built in what we call safe shutter. It knows when to open, knows when to close. So when you're sitting there doing work, you know you've got a red dot there. You don't have any one, you know, no privacy issues with the camera. It's open and working when I'm talking to you here or talking to someone else. So building that capability, building that intelligence into the systems so they can really help people get done the stuff they want to do. I think that's been something we've been working on and what you're going to see here at, you know, you're seeing this week at CES.

DAN HOWLEY: And I guess, you know, one of the things obviously that's kind of blown up for a lot of people during the pandemic is gaining, right? It's been a big to do for different companies, Dell included. Obviously, you have the Alienware line, one of the bigger gaming brands out there for PCs. What's going on there for Dell this year, and have you seen, you know, a greater sense of interest from gaming PCs as a result of the pandemic as some other companies have?

SAM BURD: Yeah, we've seen, you know, you have got a great point, we've seen huge interest in gaming. And as you think about people doing things from home, where would we be if we had to work like nine, 10, 12, 15 hours a day, and all we did is work? We've seen work and life kind of blend together, and we've seen a huge demand for gaming PCs and gaming. People want to blow off steam a little bit, enjoy, maybe get together with friends online and play games. So we're announcing in our Alienware lineup a great new set of products.

You think about next gen RTX graphics, CPUs, and capabilities in those systems, Dan, that we have been dreaming about for a number of years of like, how do you get to 8K, legitimate 8K, 60 frames per second performance in a PC? And we're now seeing that come alive with the products that we've got out there. So I'm super excited. I think the gaming space was growing, but we've seen a big surge with the pandemic and people realizing what was possible-- a great way to blow off some steam and do some entertainment at the same time with technology. And it's showing up in next generation performance that's really, really pretty amazing.

DAN HOWLEY: And you know, one of the last questions I want to ask you is, you know, we have now CES, where do you see the technologies going forward, right? This is kind of an unprecedented time, as far as COVID, the changes that we've seen to how people use their computers, how people work. There's a lot more talk about work from home. Obviously, the gaming space has seen a huge explosion, so where do you see the designs going forward? Will it be less about mobile? Will it be more about mobile? How do you see that?

SAM BURD: Yeah, we certainly see collaboration and the ability to engage people playing a big role going forward. And Dan, I don't think the world goes back. Our point of view is we're not just going to snap back to how we were pre-COVID or exactly how things were during COVID, but we see a hybrid model of engaging where people have said there are things that work great in person, and I have some of my teams need to work in the office with, whether it's equipment in labs putting their hands on product.

Other teams, we've been able to take people around the world and get them connected better than they've ever been connected, kind of all on equal footing, all dialing into a video call, able to collaborate real time on their own time in the place where they were. No one jet lagged, no one kind of tired, missing their sons or daughters, anything to do with school or sports game or whatever, and we're going to see that come together in the future world where people will be able to tap talent from all over. You'll get together when the time is right, and that's the right thing to go and do. So in that kind of hybrid world, we see technology and the role the PC and the larger screen of the PC plays as being really important.

So things like we talked about on our commercial products. We're doing things in displays to allow people to have the ability to switch between usage modes and be more productive at their desk. Things you talked about in gaming of how people pull entertainment into their life, I think all that will be important in this world going forward. And you know, for us, we kind of dubbed it this Renaissance of the PC. You know, I talked about the old friend that people kind of took for granted that's become really important and will now allow people to work from where they want and be really successful in their life, engage with their families in the way that they want going forward. So I'm excited about what the future holds and I think how technology can help us have the kind of lives that we all want to live.

DAN HOWLEY: All right, thank you very much, Sam. Sam Burd, President of Client Product Solutions at Dell.

SAM BURD: Thanks a lot, Dan.