Dell's new laptop designs; lipstick on a pig?

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has recently announced the release of some new laptop designs. The thing is, though, that these appear to be just painted/designed laptop covers on existing laptop PCs, and not new systems with some new art. In other words, is Dell just pushing out boring models with new paint jobs?

Ed Boyd, the newer design lab head who was hired in 2007 to try and transform the boring commodity boxes Dell has cranked out by the millions into something that is really a competitive advantage among a sea of PC designs. I doubt that's what Dell execs were expecting, but within just over a week, Dell will release these new designs with abstract paint jobs and funky colors -- not just different laptop lid colors -- to the market. Customers will pay an extra $75 for the newer designs. That's in addition to the current $699 starting price for Dell's entry-level consumer laptop systems.

So far, this is just another attempt to spice up the rather boring PC by adding a literal splash of color. Next year, Boyd plans on all kinds of artsy combinations by letting customers design their own PC art. That will be an effort to watch, as it will be a first from a mainstream PC maker. It's be hard to see customers flocking to Dell PCs from the competition just to be able and design their own color scheme, but consumers are fickle and unpredictable -- so who knows.