“Michael Dell says he has little interest in buying Hewlett-Packard’s PC business, but the Dell chief executive says his computer company is poised to gain market share as its larger rival undergoes a comprehensive restructuring,” Maija Palmer reports for The Financial Times.
“PC sales have come under particular pressure in the past year as consumers in western Europe and the US migrate to buying tablets and smartphones. This month Gartner, the research company, substantially lowered its forecast for global sales growth for the sector. Last month, Dell itself was forced to cut its revenue growth forecasts for the year, citing weakening consumer demand and delayed orders by public sector customers,” Palmer reports. “Nevertheless, Mr Dell believes we are not yet in a post-PC era.”
“‘There are a billion and a half PCs in the world and while Gartner change their estimates here and there, they also estimate there will be two billion PCs in the world by 2014. So when I look at that, I think the idea that the PC is no longer here is complete nonsense,’ he says,” Palmer reports. “Mr Dell indicates that the IT company is still looking to compete in the difficult tablet market. Dell’s Streak tablet, launched last year, has not sold well, and HP abandoned its TouchPad tablet after finding it too difficult to compete with Apple’s iPad. Sharp, the Japanese electronics company, recently said it would stop making its Galapagos tablets. Rumours have suggested that Dell, however, is planning to launch a tablet running Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Steve Jobs said back in June 2010:
When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars… PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people… I think that we’re embarked on that. Is the next step the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years from now? Who knows? But I think we’re headed in that direction… We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it’s uncomfortable [to those in the PC business].
How many Windoze PCs does Dell have to sell today to make the same amount Apple makes on the average Mac? Six? Seven? HP’s concession buys Dell time, but he’d better transition into a services company or he’s doomed. And servers aren’t going to make up the difference. Even Mikey’s smart enough to realize that.