Dell expects robust holiday sales

Jennifer Tan

SINGAPORE: Dell Computer Corp said it was optimistic of strong Christmas sales, despite the tightening of corporate and consumer purse strings as global economies stayed sluggish. "We've got the third quarter behind us with great momentum, where revenues rose 22 percent and we had startling unit shipments growth, and we think we're able to rack up some good performance," said, Dell's president for Asia Pacific and Japan, Bill Amelio.

According to research consultants IDC, unit shipments of personal computers are forecast to grow 16.5 percent to 6.9 million units in the Asia Pacific excluding Japan for the October to December quarter, from a year ago. This compared with a 15 percent expansion for the three months ended September 30 versus the year-ago period.

Dell, who lost its No. 1 spot in the PC space briefly to rival Hewlett-Packard after HP bought Compaq Computer Corp in May, posted a 31 percent surge in net profit to $561 million for the quarter to November 1. Revenues hit $9.1 billion as unit shipments surged 28 percent. For the fourth quarter, Dell has said it sees revenue rising 20 percent to $9.7 billion.

Dell's profit and revenue gains are a sharp contrast to other tech companies, which have been smarting from cuts in corporate spending and weak consumer demand. The company builds its personal computers and large server computers to order, allowing it to cut prices and take advantage of decreases in the cost of components such as microprocessors and circuit boards.

© Reuters Ltd.