Dell reboots from PC maker to IT solutions company - Hindu Business Line

Austin (Texas), Dec. 13: 

Just a few miles away from the Austin Convention Centre, the venue for this year’s Dell World 2012 is the Texas University where Michael Dell first got the idea for making computing devices. Many years later, the promoter of the now $60-billion company is executing a new idea - to take Dell beyond PC into services and solutions space.

Integrating solutions

What this means is that instead of just selling boxes, Dell is now integrating storage, servers, networking solutions along with a wide portfolio of services to become a full-fledged IT company.

“We have travelled millions of miles from where we started. But what we do today is very different from what we did even five years ago. We have invested $5 billion in just one year to build this transformation,” Michael Dell said at his keynote address at the Dell World 2012.

The transformation strategy comes even as the Round Rock-based company is facing stiff competition in its traditional PC business. The company still gets half its sales from PCs but global PC shipments for all vendors put together tumbled 8.3 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to market researcher Gartner Inc. The decline primarily is due to the growing popularity of smartphones and mobile devices such as iPhone and tablets.

On its part, Dell is trying hard to stay relevant in the computing market by doing a number of things. First, it has re-entered the tablet space using the Microsoft Windows platform. Secondly, it has come out with a range of PC devices including the all-in-one device that offer the touch feature of the tablet combined with power and efficiency of a PC. “We strongly believe that PC is still important. We are on the cusp of a PC revolution,” Dell said.

But analysts said that Dell may have left it too late to make a come-back into the tablet segment with Samsung and Apple ruling the roost. Dell had earlier entered the tablet space with its Android based Streak range, which didn’t too well.

Not having a smartphone product when that’s where the growth is happening is another missing link in Dell’s gameplan.

Product managers at Dell , however, downplay these concerns. “We want to pick areas where we can bring a differentiation. That’s why we aren’t making washing machines and that why we don’t make smart phones. At the end of the day, users are looking for multiple devices and we will play in areas like tablet where we think we have great products,” said Samuel Burd, Vice-President, Personal Computing Product Group, Dell

“I am optimistic with our Windows 8 device because with Android and iOS operating systems, customers have to rewrite a lot of their applications whereas the Microsoft Windows platform is light years ahead making our products plug and play,” Burd added.

Dell is not worried about Microsoft’s own attempts to make a break into the tablet space with the Surface tablet. “Surface is a competitor but we collaborate with Microsoft to make sure that we design our product differently. They also realise that not every tablet sold in the world will be a Surface,” said Burd.

thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

(The writer is in Austin at the invitation of Dell)

'; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "html") { s += google_ads[0].snippet; } else if (google_ads[0].type == "text") { // Adjust text sizes to occupy the majority of ad space. if (google_ads.length == 1) { ad_title_class = 'ad_title_large'; ad_text_class = 'ad_text_large'; ad_url_class = 'ad_url_large'; } else { ad_title_class = 'ad_title'; ad_text_class = 'ad_text'; ad_url_class = 'ad_url'; } for(var i=0; i