Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and the all-new and about-to-be-released Adamo slim laptop PC is just the latest in the computer maker's attempt to slam the PC industry with as much laptop PC variety as possible to help it gain consumer market share.

After years of not recognizing the shift towards the retail consumer space and the huge movement from desktop PCs to laptop PCs, Dell's efforts in the last year have been admirable. The competition has continued to outsmart it and grow more, but Dell's efforts to catch up to Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have borne some decent fruit. Is it enough?

Dell's Q3 period in 2008 saw the company generate 32% of its revenue from mobility products, which means laptop PCs for both the business and consumer markets it serves globally. Dell's Jeremy Bolen indicated that the consumer movement towards laptop PCs helped Dell realize that it needed to be a bigger, faster player in the space.

That's pretty obvious, and the competitors that truly win are the ones that spot trends before they happen and get ahead of the curve in the direct or retail markets -- or both. Dell can't solve tomorrow's problems by the same level of thinking that created them (credit: Albert Einstein). It better roll out the innovation blanket across its company -- not just in products, but in strategy.

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.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) said this week that it would be switching all of its laptop PC models to LED-backlit screens by 2010. This is part of Dell's movement to manufacture greener PCs, as LED screens don't have mercury inside and use 43% less energy (for a standard 15" screen). It will begin offering only LED screens in some models beginning this December, and will have all laptop screens using this technology by 2010.

Currently, Dell -- like most manufacturers -- uses fluorescent lamps to give a backlight to its laptop screens. Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) recently said that it also plans to replace all screens in its various laptop PC models"eventually," but with Dell giving dates, no doubt other manufacturers will come out with similar announcements and roadmaps soon.

Expect more electronics manufacturers and retailers to continually find ways to cut waste, conserve electricity and use parts that don't contaminate the environment. Not only is this a smart decision from an environmental perspective, it's also good for business. In a commodity business like PCs, differentiating oneself by marketing "green" bullet points may just get your PC sold over the one sitting a foot away on a display shelf. That is, until all your competitors have the same advantages as you. Then, it will be on to the next differentiator.

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?

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is just starting to get a foothold on its turnaround, but until that is in full swing (possibly later this year), the company is at least seeing the increasing demand for laptop computer systems lead to increased demand for high-end gaming computers. These PCs are generally top-end systems that feature the latest in graphics hardware plus the best processors, both of which are needed for the latest in 3D computer games.

Although Dell's XPS high-end desktop product segment (along with its Alienware brand) are both sought after among the gaming crowd, competitors are not standing still either. Larger rival Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has both the Blackbird and Voodoo gaming PC segments and knows that fatter margins are to be had in this niche PC segment as well. With the average desktop computer selling for under $1,000 these days, computer makers are anxious to try and relive a little of older times by selling these high-end desktop systems for more than razor-thin margins. The good news is that they're succeeding, but at the same time laptop systems are cannibalizing traditional desktop PC sales as the normal performance gap between the two segments continues to narrow.

Is the future holding only laptop systems for HP, Dell and others? As the head of Dell's Alienware group puts it, "We always knew instinctively that if we could come out with a notebook as powerful as a desktop, it would be greatly accepted and would probably overtake our desktops." That may be happening soon, and as margins evaporate into thin air on normal desktop systems (and become lower on standard laptop systems too), manufacturers will need to seek out these lucrative niches, and even build new ones that customers don't yet realize they need.

With the announcement of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL)'s new colorful laptops and the re-branding of some of its desktops, the computer maker is attempting to re-ignite excitement in its dull product lineup at the exact right time it needs to. I'm quite sure that Michael Dell's recent executive hires were given marching orders to get things underway as soon as possible, and here we are at the start of those results. I've referenced Dell's new strategy a few times in the last couple of days, but what's new here is what could be perceived as Dell's initial attempt to take on the "style and substance" market that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is famous for.

Dell's newer XPS laptops, as noted by Rob Enderle here, are more reminiscent of Apple MacBooks and upper-crust Sony laptop computer systems than kludgy and boring Dell laptop systems. This is a good thing, as even Apple does not have color options in its laptop selections right now -- it's either white or black. Same for Sony's venerable Vaio line, which has great design but few options for specific color personalization. What Dell has going for it is the mainstay of its business model for nearly two decades: selling direct to the customer. If Dell can sell many different options in terms of colors, materials and looks for its laptops direct to the customer and not attack retail (where inventory turns on custom products are really hard to predict), Dell may have a chance to become much more relevant that it has been in the last five years.

So, Dell may be starting, just this week, with a specific, multi-pronged approach: starting a small retail experiment with the world's largest retailer (as of June 10th) while simultaneously trying to court the "Apple-type" customer who may choose to opt for those new colors, aluminum plates and svelte lines in a laptop. The key difference here is availability: Apple's laptops, like the MacBook and MacBook Pro, are sold online and in stores and in Apple's retail stores (and other retailers). Apple's gems are also only available in white or black. By contrast, Dell's new XPS laptop systems are, for now, only available from the company's website (consumer direct sales), and will come in many more colors than just white or black. Will customers bite at these new Dell systems? Hard to say this week, but I'll be paying close attention.

In addition to introducing new and colorful shells for some of its higher-end laptop computer systems, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is going for broke in the uber-glitz department by trotting out some of its XPS machines in a model-catwalk facade. Maybe that interests some, but for now, Dell's apparent and overnight attempt to inject some marketing life into its product lineup seems a tad strange to me.

I'm all for the design and marketing folks at Dell poking their hands and fingers into making Dell machines look nicer as well as attracting more design-conscious eyeballs. These are great moves for Dell as the computer maker strives to kick-start its marketing and get customers out of the clutches of competitors like the re-energized HP and that design darling, Apple. Dell's "Yours is here" marketing campaign that kicked off this week tells the market that Dell will have "your system" built -- your color, your specs and hopefully, "your price," heh.

But, unveiling new Inspiron and XPS machines on a makeshift catwalk at a Macy's location in Manhattan is a little premature, right? That is, unless, Dell is targeting the techno-chic and "gotta have gadget" crowd that appreciate some life in the technology they use and have the pennies and motivation to be looking for a new laptop computer. Aren't you rushing to splurge on a new dell XPS laptop in candy-apple red after having seen a Macy's mannequin holding one in those sexy, polycarbonate hands? Thought so.

I was doing laptop design and price research late last year and realized, in my opinion, that Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ)'s retail laptop computers seemed quite a bit more stylish and functional than similar offerings from rival Dell. HP's glossy consumer notebooks seemed to give more bang for the buck, had great new styling and in many cases, were cheaper from a local Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) store than a less-stylish (boring) laptop box direct from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL)'s website. In addition, touching and feeling a laptop computer in a store makes buyers out of many as opposed to seeing a picture on a website. And recent history tells us HP surpassed Dell in global market share -- I wonder why?

Dell is obviously not resting on its laurels here, and is giving more and more of its laptop computer contract manufacturing business to Taiwanese firm Wistron, who right now may be the largest laptop system manufacturer for Hewlett-Packard as well. Remember those glossy and well-designed HP laptops I was talking about? They're all made by Wistron based on a design by HP. More and more market share in the PC industry is shifting to laptop systems instead of desktop systems, so for Dell to give new business to Wistron in addition to Compal (its largest contract manufacturer for laptops currently) makes perfect sense.

Dell's reported larger order from Wistron would make the Taiwanese company the second-largest maker of laptop systems for Dell. The one thing Dell needs in the sub-$1,000 consumer laptop market is design finesse, though. HP accomplished that in my opinion with Wistron, as just looking at newer HP consumer laptops gives me the feel of an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) laptop system (to a point). With laptops having been boring flat boxes for so long, HP's design finesse comes shining through (and Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: SNE) has a great design in laptops as well). In addition to signing on Wistron to make a ton more Dell laptop systems, can the Round Rock company get its act together in terms of a nicer design? Recent hire Ron Garriques may be able to accomplish that -- and it's desperately needed if Dell wants to start taking market share back from HP.