Johannesburg, 20 Apr 2001
Seventeen years after its simple beginning in a dormitory room here, and the audacious claim of its founder that he intended to "take on IBM," customers have made Dell the world`s leading computer-systems company.
Dell, which passed IBM in terms of global market share two years ago, ranked No. 1 in the first quarter of this year, according to industry analysts. The period is the first in which Dell earned the leading position on a global basis. The company has been atop the U.S. market, the world`s largest, for the last eight quarters.
Michael Dell, who started the company as a student at the University of Texas in 1984, said Dell`s methodical climb to market leadership is the product of a persistent focus on delivering the best possible customer experience by directly selling computing products and services based on industry-standard technology.
"Market-share rankings are essentially election returns from our customers, and the trend in their voting has been unmistakable for some time," said Mr. Dell. "Customers increasingly prefer the better value, flexibility and scalability of industry-standard computing products, and against the cost and complexity of proprietary technology.
"This is a milestone for our company and our people, and we`re rightfully proud, but the greatest opportunities for customers and for Dell are still ahead of us."
New industry data suggest Dell accounted for more than 95 percent of overall growth in global industry unit shipments. Analysts estimate that the company`s volumes rose nearly 10 times faster than the combined industry rate, as Dell`s market share increased by almost three full points to 12.8 percent. In the United States, analysts said Dell grew more than 30 percent from the year-ago quarter, while total industry shipments in the country declined by more than 3 percent.
Dell believes that it continued to show particular strength in shipments of servers, storage products and notebook computers, all strategically important product categories.
Mr. Dell acknowledged that the current demand environment is "a challenging one," but said the company`s efficient, customer-focused direct business model is particularly well suited for the situation.
"Dell products and services are in high demand, especially in the enterprise categories-servers, storage products and workstations," he said.
"Our costs are the industry`s lowest, and we`re passing along sharp component-cost declines more quickly than competitors."
Dell plans to announce operating results for its fiscal first quarter on May 17.
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