From AOL:
Dell on track, Europe and Asia "still pretty good"
By Yukari Iwatani
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Dell said Tuesday that the No. 2 personal computer maker's business is on track with what it expected when it reported financial results last month.
"Our business is basically on track with what we said at the end of our fourth quarter," he said in an interview at the CTIA Global Wireless trade show here.
Dell made the comments even as rival computer makers such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc. are issuing profit warnings amid grim computer sales growth.
Dell Computer said in February when it reported fourth-quarter results that it expects first-quarter earnings of about 17 cents and sales of about $8 billion.
"The markets in Europe and Asia are still pretty good," he added, pointing out that it was too early to tell if those markets will see a slowdown in computer sales that has already marred the U.S. market.
Still, he added: "We certainly have some global customers based in the U.S., and they tend to behave the same everywhere in the world."
Dell Computer's fastest growing markets are China, India and Brazil, Dell said.
But even though those markets are Dell's fastest growing, Dell wasn't overly optimistic about a rebound in PC demand during the second half of 2001.
"Somebody says things are going to recover in the second half, well, why is it going to recover in the second half?" Dell said. "Because it's not in the first half. That doesn't make a lot of sense."
He said his company intended to take advantage of the current weak economic environment, like many other large companies, such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Applied Materials Inc., have in past economic slowdowns.
"We think that being profitable and fastest-growing and having a sustainable cost advantage is a great strategy during any time," Dell said. "But certainly during a recession or a downturn, it works even better."
The company said in February that it planned to continue aggressive price cuts to take more market share, and Compaq, the world's No. 1 PC maker, has cited falling PC prices, as one of the reasons for a profit warning earlier this month.
"Our focus is on growing profitably with a particular emphasis on really three key areas -- servers and storage, executing a direct model and globalization," he said.
Dell also told the CTIA conference earlier that Dell Computer planned to eventually embed wireless technology in its computers that would allow consumers to connect their PCs directly to wireless services such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint PCS without using a mobile phone as an intermediary.
When combined with its computers' wireless Ethernet technology, Dell said consumers would be able to connect directly to the Internet wirelessly both from the office and on the go.
19:18 03-20-01
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