January 17, 2008 – Business Management Article
Dell’s Turnaround Strategy working…
Ever since founder Michael Dell returned as CEO a year ago, Dell has forayed into retail, made more acquisitions and focussed on cutting costs. IDC reported that Dell is back to double-digit percentage growth in global PC shipments in the fourth quarter. Dell’s worldwide shipments shrank 8.4 percent last year.
Dell leaves behind HP as Largest PC Supplier in the U.S.
One of Dell’s Turnaround move was switching from a direct sales model to selling PCs through retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Dell’s new retail sales strategy is starting to pay off in the U.S. where Dell sold 15.2 percent more PCs than a year earlier. This figure is more than overall U.S. market growth of 8.8 percent and HP’s 9.8 percent. Dell shipped 5.5 million units in the U.S. Competitor HP’s (Hewlett-Packard)growth slowed. HP shipped 4.5 million units. But still Dell remained in the No. 2 market-share spot globally (Dell shipped 14.6 percent of the global PC market; a total of 11.3 million units). HP kept the No. 1 market share spot with 19 percent. HP remained the world’s largest PC dealer, topping Dell, Acer and Lenovo, according to figures from both firms. Taiwan’s Acer held 9.6 percent of the worldwide PC market and is aggressively expanding. Acer in October 2007, purchased Gateway Inc in the United States after which Acer’s PC shipments increased 60.3 percent. Apple Inc, held 5.7 percent of the U.S. market with its computers sales increasing by 30.9 percent in the fourth quarter. Lenovo made slower growth in the global market and is struggling to retain its core audience of business users.