c



 


Public
NASDAQ: Dell
 

HKEX: 4331
S&P 500 Component

Computer Systems
Computer Peripherals

  
Computer Software
IT consulting
IT services

Austin, Texas

  
November 4, 1984


   
Michael Dell

1 Dell Way
 
  
Round Rock, Texas, U.S.[1]

    Worldwide

Michael S. Dell

(Chairman & CEO)

Desktops
Servers
Notebooks
Netbooks
 
 

Peripherals
Printers
Televisions
Scanners
 Storage
Smart Phones

'
  $52.902 billion (2010)[2]

  
$2.172 billion (2010)[2]

  $1.433 billion (2010)[2]

 
$33.652 billion (2010)[2]


  $5.641 billion (2010)[2]

  96,000 (2010)

Dell Services

!   

Alienware

"! 
Dell.com

c#
(NASDAQ: Dell, HKEX: 4331) is a American multinational information technology corporation
based in Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and
related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one
of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more than 96,000 people
worldwide. Dell had 46,000 employees as of Jan. 30. About 22,200 of those, or 48.3 percent,
were in the United States, while 23,800 people, or 51.7 percent, worked in other countries,
according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.[÷

] Dell is listed at
#38 on the 

 (2010). 

 also lists Dell as the #5 most admired company in its
industry.

Dell has grown by both organic and inorganic means since its inception²notable mergers and
acquisitions including Alienware (2006) and Perot Systems (2009). As of 2009, the company
sold personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer
peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players and other electronics built by
other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain
management and electronic commerce.

On May 3, 2010, Fortune Magazine listed Dell as the 38th largest company in the United States
and the 5th largest company in Texas by total revenue. It is the 2nd largest non-oil company in
Texas (behind AT&T) and the largest company in the Austin area.[3]



 !
YÊ 1 History
OÊ 1.1 Dell Facilities

YÊ 2 Products
OÊ 2.1 Scope and brands
ÎÊ 2.1.1 Manufacturing
OÊ 2.2 Green initiatives

YÊ 3 Technical support

YÊ 4 Commercial aspects
OÊ 4.1 Organization
OÊ 4.2 Marketing
ÎÊ 4.2.1 Criticisms of Dell's marketing of laptop security
ÎÊ 4.2.2 Dell kiosks
ÎÊ 4.2.3 Dell stores in the United States of America
ÎÊ 4.2.4 Dell Partner Program
ÎÊ 4.2.5 Retail in the United States
ÎÊ 4.2.6 Retail around the World
OÊ 4.3 Education K12 Market
OÊ 4.4 Competition
OÊ 4.5 Partnership with EMC

YÊ 5 Environmental record
YÊ 6 Criticism
YÊ 7 See also
YÊ 8 References
YÊ 9 Further reading
YÊ 10 External links
 
Main article: History of Dell

Founder Michael Dell with his V
 
 (the precursor to Dell Inc.) prototype, which is now
housed at the Smithsonian Institution

Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created V
 
 while a student at the
University of Texas at Austin. The dorm-room headquartered company sold IBM PC-compatible
computers built from stock components. Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling
personal computer systems directly to customers, PCs Limited could better understand
customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs.[4]
Michael Dell dropped out of school in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after
getting about $300,000 in expansion-capital from his family.

In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design ² the "Turbo PC", sold for
US$795.[5] PCs Limited advertised its systems in national computer magazines for sale directly
to consumers and custom assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. The
company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.

The company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation" in 1988 and began expanding
globally²first in Ireland. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80
million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share.[6] In 1992,


  included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest
companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company ever.[÷

]

In 1996, Dell began selling computers via its web site, and in 2002, Dell expanded its product
line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Dell's first acquisition
occurred in 1999 with the purchase of ConvergeNet Technologies. In 2003, the company was
rebranded as simply "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers. From
2004 to 2007, Michael Dell stepped aside as CEO, while long-time Dell employee Kevin Rollins
took the helm. During that time, Dell acquired Alienware, which introduced several new items to
Dell products, including AMD microprocessors. To prevent cross-market products, Dell
continues to run Alienware as a separate entity but still a wholly-owned subsidiary.[7]

Lackluster performance, however, in its lower-end computer business prompted Michael Dell to
take on the role of CEO again. The founder announced a change campaign called "Dell 2.0,"
reducing headcount and diversifying the company's product offerings. The company acquired
EqualLogic on January 28, 2008 to gain a foothold in the iSCSI storage market. Because Dell
already had an efficient manufacturing process, integrating EqualLogic's products into the
company drove manufacturing prices down.[8]

In 2009, Dell acquired Perot Systems, a technology services and outsourcing company founded
by H. Ross Perot.

On September 21, 2009, Dell announced its intent to acquire Perot Systems (based in Plano,
Texas) in a reported $3.9 billion deal.[9] Perot Systems brought applications development,
systems integration, and strategic consulting services through its operations in the U.S. and 10
other countries. In addition, it provided a variety of business process outsourcing services,
including claims processing and call center operations.[10]

On August 16, 2010, Dell announced its intent to acquire the data storage company 3PAR.[11] On
September 2, 2010 Hewlett-Packard offered $33 a share, which Dell declined to match.[12]

On November 2,2010 dell Acquired Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration leader Boomi.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.






 
c

Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas

Dell's headquarters are located in Round Rock, Texas.[14] As of 2010 the company employs
about 16,000 people in the facility,[15] which has 2,100,000 square feet (195,000 m2) of space.[16]
As of 1999 almost half of the general fund of the City of Round Rock originates from sales taxes
generated from the Dell headquarters.[17]

The company previously had its headquarters in the Arboretum complex in northern Austin,
Texas.[18][19] In 1989 Dell occupied 127,000 square feet (11,800 m2) in the Arboretum
complex.[20] In 1990 Dell had 1,200 employees in its headquarters.[18] In 1993 Dell submitted a
document to Round Rock officials, titled "Dell Computer Corporate Headquarters, Round Rock,
Texas, May 1993 Schematic Design." Despite the filing, during that year the company said that it
was not going to move its headquarters.[21] In 1994 Dell announced that it was moving most of
its employees out of the Arboretum, but that it was going to continue to occupy the top floor of
the Arboretum and that the company's official headquarters address would continue to be the
Arboretum. The top floor continued to hold Dell's board room, demonstration center, and visitor
meeting room. Less than one month prior to August 29, 1994, Dell moved 1,100 customer
support and telephone sales employees to Round Rock.[22] Dell's lease in the Arboretum had been
scheduled to expire in 1994.[23]

The company sponsors Dell Diamond, the home stadium of the Round Rock Express, the AAA
minor league baseball affiliate of the Houston Astros major league baseball team.

By 1996 Dell was moving its headquarters to Round Rock.[24] As of January 1996 3,500 people
still worked at the then-current Dell headquarters. One building of the Round Rock headquarters,
Round Rock 3, had space for 6,400 employees and was scheduled to be completed in November
1996.[25] In 1998 Dell announced that it was going to add two buildings to its Round Rock
complex, adding 1,600,000 square feet (149,000 m2) of office space to the complex.[26]

In 2000 Dell announced that it would lease 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) of space in the Las
Cimas office complex in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, between Austin and West Lake
Hills, to house the company's executive offices and corporate headquarters. 100 senior
executives were scheduled to work in the building by the end of 2000.[27] In January 2001 the
company leased the space in Las Cimas 2, located along Loop 360. Las Cimas 2 housed Dell's
executives, the investment operations, and some corporate functions. Dell also had an option for
138,000 square feet (12,800 m2) of space in Las Cimas 3.[28] After a slowdown in business
required reducing employees and production capacity, Dell decided to sublease its offices in two
buildings in the Las Cimas office complex.[29] In 2002 Dell announced that it planned to sublease
its space to another tenant; the company planned to move its headquarters back to Round Rock
once a tenant was secured.[28] By 2003 Dell moved its headquarters back to Round Rock. It
leased all of Las Cimas I and II, with a total of 312,000 square feet (29,000 m2), for about a
seven year period after 2003. By that year roughly 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of that space
was absorbed by new subtenants.[30]

In 2008 Dell switched the power sources of the Round Rock headquarters to more
environmentally friendly ones, with 60% of the total power coming from TXU Energy wind
farms and 40% coming from the Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant operated by
Waste Management, Inc.[16]

Dell facilities in the United States are located in Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma; Peoria, Illinois; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Miami, Florida. Facilities
located abroad include Penang, Malaysia; Xiamen, China; Bangalore, India; Hyderabad, India;
Chandigarh, India; Delhi, India; Bracknell, UK; Manila, Philippines[31] Chennai, India;[32]
Hortolandia, Brazil; Łódź, Poland[33] and Limerick, Ireland.[34]

 

YÊ  !  

The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments.

Its Business/Corporate class represent brands where the company advertises emphasizes long
life-cycles, reliability, and serviceability. Such brands include:

YÊ OptiPlex (office desktop computer systems)

YÊ Vostro (office/small business desktop and notebook systems)
YÊ n Series (desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed)
YÊ Latitude (business-focused notebooks)
YÊ Precision (workstation systems and high-performance notebooks),[35]
YÊ PowerEdge (business servers)
YÊ PowerVault (direct-attach and network-attached storage)
YÊ PowerConnect (network switches)
YÊ Dell/EMC (storage area networks)
 YÊ EqualLogic (enterprise class iSCSI SANs)

Dell's Home Office/Consumer class emphasizes value, performance, and expandability. These
brands include:

YÊ Inspiron (budget desktop and notebook computers)

YÊ Studio (mainstream desktop and laptop computers)
YÊ XPS (high-end desktop and notebook computers)
YÊ Studio XPS (high-end design-focus of XPS systems and extreme multimedia capability)
YÊ Alienware (high-performance gaming systems)
YÊ Adamo (high-end luxury laptop)

Dell's Peripherals class includes USB keydrives, LCD televisions, and printers; Dell monitors
includes LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitors. Dell UltraSharp is
further a high-end brand of monitors.

Dell service and support brands include the c



 (extended domestic support
services, previously "Dell on Call"), c

 
 (extended support services abroad),
c





(a commercial service-contract that provides an industry-certified
technician with a lower call-volume than in normal queues), c  c



("Software as a Service" remote-desktop management),[36] and 
÷ (a
support-queue available to home users who purchased their systems either through Dell's website
or through Dell phone-centers).

Discontinued products and brands include Axim (PDA; discontinued April 9, 2007),[37]
Dimension (home and small office desktop computers; discontinued July 2007), Dell Digital
Jukebox (MP3 player; discontinued August 2006), Dell PowerApp (application-based servers),
and Dell Omniplex (desktop and tower computers previously supported to run server and
desktop operating systems).

(
$

From its early beginnings, Dell operated as a pioneer in the "configure to order" approach to
manufacturing ² delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast,
most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly
basis.[38]

To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of
manufacturing its products close to its customers. This also allows for implementing a just-in-
time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs. Low inventory is another
signature of the Dell business model ² a critical consideration in an industry where components
depreciate very rapidly.[39]

Dell's manufacturing process covers assembly, software installation, functional testing (including
"burn-in"), and quality control. Throughout most of the company's history, Dell manufactured
desktop machines in-house and contracted out manufacturing of base notebooks for
configuration in-house.[40] However, the company's approach has changed. The 2006 Annual
Report states "we are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships
and manufacturing outsourcing relationships." 


 reported in September,
2008 that "Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their
plants.[41]

Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market formerly took place at Dell
plants in Austin, Texas (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999). The plant
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (opened in 2005) is scheduled to cease operations in
November 2010, while the Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary remains in
operation. Dell servers come from Austin, Texas.

Dell's desktop plant in Austin, Texas was shut down in 2008. It closed its desktop manufacturing
in Lebanon in early 2009. The last major U.S. plant in North Carolina is scheduled to close in
November 2010.[42] It is expected that most of the work carried out in North Carolina will be
transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, though Dell said some of the work
will move to its own factories overseas.[43]

Dell assembles computers for the EMEA market at Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, and
employs about 4,500 people in that country. Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and
went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and
foreign investor. On January 8, 2009, Dell announced that it would move all Dell manufacturing
in Limerick to Dell's new plant in the Polish city of Łódź by January 2010.[44] European Union
officials said they would investigate a ¼52.7million aid package the Polish government used to
attract Dell away from Ireland.[45] European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990)
and EMF3 form part of the Raheen Industrial Estate near Limerick. EMF2 (previously a Wang
facility, later occupied by Flextronics, situated in Castletroy) closed in 2002,[÷

] and Dell
Inc. has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now[] contains only offices).[46] Dell's
Alienware subsidiary also manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland plant. Construction of EMF4
in Łódź, Poland has started: Dell started production there in autumn 2007.[47]

Dell opened plants in Penang, Malaysia in 1995, and in Xiamen, China in 1999. These facilities
serve the Asian market and assemble 95% of Dell notebooks. Dell Inc. has invested[] an
estimated $60 million in a new manufacturing unit in Chennai, India, to support the sales of its
products in the Indian subcontinent. Indian-made products will bear the "Made in India" mark. In
2007 the Chennai facility had the target of producing 400,000 desktop PCs, and plans envisaged
it starting to produce notebook PCs and other products in the second half of 2007.[÷

]

Dell moved desktop and PowerEdge server manufacturing for the South American market from
the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazil in 2007.[48]




 å 
Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to establish a product-
recycling goal (in 2004) and completed the implementation of its global consumer recycling-
program in 2006.[49] On February 6, 2007, the National Recycling Coalition awarded Dell its
"Recycling Works" award for efforts to promote producer responsibility.[50] On July 19, 2007,
Dell announced that it had exceeded targets in working to achieve a multi-year goal of
recovering 275 million pounds of computer equipment by 2009.[51] The company reported the
recovery of 78 million pounds (nearly 40,000 tons) of IT equipment from customers in 2006, a
93-percent increase over 2005; and 12.4% of the equipment Dell sold seven years earlier.[52]

On June 5, 2007 Dell set a goal of becoming the greenest technology company on Earth for the
long term. The company launched a zero-carbon initiative that includes:

1.Ê reducing Dell's carbon intensity by 15 percent by 2012

2.Ê requiring primary suppliers to report carbon emissions data during quarterly business
reviews
3.Ê partnering with customers to build the "greenest PC on the planet"
4.Ê expanding the company's carbon-offsetting program, "Plant a Tree for Me".

The company introduced the term "The Re-Generation" during a round table in London
commemorating 2007 World Environment Day. "The Re-Generation" refers to people of all ages
throughout the world who want to "make a difference" in improving the world's environment.
Dell also talked about plans to take the lead in setting an environmental standard for the
"technology industry" and maintaining that leadership in the future.

Dell reports its environmental performance in an annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Report that follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocol. Dell's 2008 CSR report
ranked as "Application Level B" as "checked by GRI".[53]

The company aims to reduce its external environmental impact through energy-efficient
evolution of products, and also reduce its direct operational impact through energy-efficiency
programmes. Internal energy-efficiency programmes reportedly save the company more than $3
million annually in energy-cost savings.[54] The largest component of the company's internal
energy-efficiency savings comes through PC power management: the company expects to save
$1.8 million in energy costs through using specialised energy-management software on a
network of 50,000 PCs.[55][56]




 %
 
Dell routes technical support queries according to component-type and to the level of support
purchased. Dell Inc. brands its service agreements at five levels for their business customers: (1)
Basic support provides business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support/
Return-to-Base or Collect and Return Services (based on contracts purchased at point of sale);
(2) Silver support provides 24×7 telephone support and 4-hour on-site support after telephone-
based troubleshooting; (3) Gold support provides additional benefits over and above Silver
support; (4) Platinum Plus support provides additional benefits to Gold Support; and (5) two-
hour on-site support, offered in select cities.[57]

Dell's Consumer division offers 24x7 phone based and online troubleshooting rather than only
during business hours in certain markets such as the United States and Canada. On February 4,
2008 Dell launched a revamped services-and-support scheme for businesses named
"ProSupport", offering customers more options to tailor services to fit their needs. Rather than
take a one-size-fits-all approach, Dell has put together packages of options for each category of
its customers: small and medium-sized businesses, large businesses, government, education, and
health-care- and life-sciences. Dell now also offers separate support options for IT staff and for
non-IT professionals. For the latter, the company offers "how-to" support for software
applications, such as Microsoft Office. Dell also offers collaborative support with many third-
party software vendors. For Dell-Certified IT departments, Dell offers "fast-track dispatch" of
parts and labor and access to a crisis-center to handle major outages, virus-attacks, or problems
caused by natural disasters.[÷

]

Dell has several unique aspects of its support program. For example, computers use "Service
Tags" unique alpha-numeric identifiers and '11 digit Express Service codes' (punched into the
IVR prompts) to get customers to the appropriate support queue. Agents also utilize
c!, (a Citrix/GoToAssist based remote-access tool that gives technicians within Dell
Support the ability to access customer computers from a remote location for troubleshooting
purposes).






 ! 
 &
A board of directors of nine people runs the company. Michael Dell, the founder of the company,
serves on the board. Other board members include Don Carty, William Gray, Judy Lewent,
Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl, Michael A. Miles, and Sam Nunn. Shareholders elect the nine board
members at meetings, and those board members who do not get a majority of votes must submit
a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the
resignation. The board of directors usually sets up five committees having oversight over specific
matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues,
including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation
for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles
financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating
Committee, which handles various corporate matters (including nomination of the board); and
the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from
violating antitrust laws.

The corporate structure and management of Dell extends beyond the board of directors. The Dell
Global Executive Management Committee sets strategic directions. Dell has regional senior vice-
presidents for countries other than the United States, including David Marmonti for EMEA and
Stephen J. Felice for Asia/Japan. As of 2007, other officers included Martin Garvin (senior vice
president for worldwide procurement) and Susan E. Sheskey (vice president and Chief
Information Officer).

( '
Dell advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet,
magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Some of Dell Inc's marketing strategies include lowering
prices at all times of the year, offering free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and offering
free shipping in order to encourage more sales and to stave off competitors. In 2006, Dell cut its
prices in an effort to maintain its 19.2% market share. However, this also cut profit-margins by
more than half, from 8.7 to 4.3 percent. To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most
purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone network, and to move its
customer-care division to India and El Salvador.[58]

A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early 2000s featured the actor
Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a lightly mischievous blond-haired youth who came to
the assistance of bereft computer purchasers. Each television advertisement usually ended with
Steven's catch-phrase: "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!"

A subsequent advertising campaign featured interns at Dell headquarters (with Curtis' character
appearing in a small cameo at the end of one of the first commercials in this particular
campaign).
A Dell advertising campaign for the XPS line of gaming computers featured in print in the
September 2006 issue of  . It used as a tagline the common term in Internet and gamer
slang: "FTW", meaning "For The Win". However, Dell Inc. soon[] dropped the campaign.

In the first-person shooter game F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, several computers visible on desks
within the game have recognizable Dell XPS model characteristics, sometimes even including
the Dell logo on the monitors.

In 2007, Dell switched advertising agencies in the US from BBDO to Mother.[÷

] In July
2007, Dell released new advertising created by Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines.
The ads featured music from the Flaming Lips and Devo who re-formed especially to record the
song in the ad "Work it Out". Also in 2007, Dell began using the slogan "Yours is here" to say
that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements.[59]

! $c( '$


In 2008, Dell received press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure laptops,
specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830.[60] At Lenovo's request, the (U.S.) National
Advertising Division (NAD) evaluated the claim, and reported that Dell did not have enough
evidence to support it.[61]

c''
Starting in 2002, Dell opened kiosk locations in shopping malls across the United States in order
to give personal service to customers who preferred this method of shopping to using the Internet
or the telephone-system. Despite the added expense, prices at the kiosks match or beat prices
available through other retail channels. Starting in 2005, Dell expanded kiosk locations to
include shopping malls across Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.

On January 30, 2008, Dell shut down all 140 kiosks in the U.S. due to expansion into retail
stores.[62]






 c %)  $ 
In 2006, Dell Inc. opened one full store, 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) in area, at NorthPark Center
in Dallas, Texas. It operates the retail outlet seven days a week to display about 36 models,
including PCs and televisions. As at the kiosks, customers can only see demonstration-computers
and place orders through agents. Dell then delivers purchased items just as if the customer had
placed the order by phone or over the Internet.

Dell Inc. planned to use the Dallas store to house about three times as many products as it
displayed in more than 160 kiosks in malls and airports.[÷

] In addition to showcasing
products, the stores also support on-site warranties and non-warranty service ("Dell Solution
Station"). Services offered include repairing computer video-cards and removing spyware from
hard drives.

On February 14, 2008, Dell closed the Service Center in its Dallas NorthPark store and laid off
all the technical staff there.

c    
In late 2007, Dell Inc. announced that it planned to expand its program to value-added resellers
(VARs), giving it the official name of "Dell Partner Direct" and a new Website [3].[÷

]
Dell Inc. realized[÷

] that this program, once a small factor in Dell Inc. sales, had become
a growing sector of its business and it desired[÷

] to leverage this growing outlet for its
products. It promised VARs who joined this program increased discounts on product and the
ability to use the Dell name and logo in their marketing efforts. ConnectU became an early
member[÷

] of the program.

The overall success of this program ² as a new development for Dell Inc. ² remains
unclear.[÷

]

'%)  

In the early 1990s, Dell also sold its products through Best Buy, Costco and Sam's Club stores in
the United States. Dell stopped this practice in 1994, citing low profit-margins on the business.
In 2003, Dell briefly sold products in Sears stores in the U.S. In 2007, Dell started shipping its
products to major retailers in the U.S. once again, starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart.
Staples, the largest office-supply retailer in the U.S., and Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer
in the U.S., became Dell retail partners later that same year.



 ' 
 %"  
As of the end of February 2008, Dell products shipped to one of the largest office-supply
retailers in Canada, Staples Business Depot. In April 2008, Future Shop and Best Buy began
carrying a subset of Dell products, such as certain desktops, laptops, printers, and monitors.

Since some shoppers in certain markets show reluctance to purchase technological products
through the phone or the Internet, Dell has looked into opening retail operations in some
countries in Central Europe and Russia. In April 2007, Dell opened a retail store in Budapest. In
October of the same year, Dell opened a retail store in Moscow.

In the UK, HMV's flagship Trocadero store has sold Dell XPS PCs since December 2007. From
January 2008 the UK stores of DSGi have sold Dell products (in particular, through Currys and
PC World stores). As of 2008, the large supermarket-chain Tesco has sold Dell laptops and
desktops in outlets throughout the UK.

In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with office supply chain, Officeworks (part of Coles
Group), to stock a few modified models in the Inspiron desktop and notebook range. These
models have slightly different model numbers, but almost replicate the ones available from the
Dell Store. Dell continued its retail push in the Australian market with its partnership with Harris
Technology (another part of Coles Group) in November of the same year. In addition, Dell
expanded its retail distributions in Australia through an agreement with discount electrical
retailer, The Good Guys, known for "Slashing Prices". Dell agreed to distribute a variety of
makes of both desktops and notebooks, including Studio and XPS systems in late 2008. Dell and
Dick Smith Electronics (owned by Woolworths Limited) reached an agreement to expand within
Dick Smith's 400 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand in May 2009 (1 year since
Officeworks ² owned by Coles Group ² reached a deal). The retailer has agreed to distribute a
variety of Inspiron and Studio notebooks, with minimal Studio desktops from the Dell range. As
of 2009, Dell continues to run and operate its various kiosks in 18 shopping centres throughout
Australia. On 31 March 2010 Dell announced to Australian Kiosk employees that they were
shutting down the Australian/New Zealand Dell kiosk program.







*+( '
This section   $  $,
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. v



 !

There have been many different definitions to the "Intelligent Classroom" over the last 10 years.
Some of the definitions are as vague as putting an interactive white board and a projector in the
room. Others are more detailed and include specific content.

Dell Corporation has been a leader for years and has had several different versions of the
³Intelligent Classroom´. The most current definition is: ³through its ability to stimulate learning
on multiple levels, technology can enhance the classroom experience for both teachers and
student´.

Other corporations and products have included other definitions. One of these includes: ³The
most important part of the Intelligent Classroom is the ...Students, Teacher, and the Educational
Interaction´. This view stresses the importance of the educational interaction rather than just
products.

Typical technology used in an Intelligent Classroom would include a projector, computer, sound,
student response systems, video distribution, and IP TV. All of these products would have one
goal, and that is to improve the learning experience for the students. If implemented correctly,
Media Rich Curriculum (MRC) is now the center piece of the classroom rather than the
technology.

Video Distribution on a local area network requires these key features: A properly designed
network and video distribution equipment. A general guideline can be followed if questions are
brought up regarding the ability of a specific network to support video distribution: "If the
network can support VoiP (Voice Over IP) the network should support video distribution."
While this is a general statement, it does help educators set a guideline for implementing MRC
on a network going to a classroom.






 !
Dell's major competitors include Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony,
Asus, Lenovo, IBM, Samsung, and Sun Microsystems. Dell and its subsidiary, Alienware,
compete in the enthusiast market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (a
subsidiary of HP), and other manufacturers. In the second quarter of 2006 Dell had between 18%
and 19% share of the worldwide personal computer market, compared to HP with roughly 15%.

In late 2006, Dell lost its lead in the PC-business to Hewlett-Packard. Both Gartner and IDC
estimated that in the third quarter of 2006, HP shipped more units worldwide than did Dell.
Dell's 3.6% growth paled in comparison to HP's 15% growth during the same period. The
problem got worse in the fourth quarter, when Gartner estimated that Dell PC shipments declined
8.9% (versus HP's 23.9% growth). As a result, at the end of 2006 Dell's overall PC market-share
stood at 13.9% (versus HP's 17.4%).

IDC reported that Dell lost more server market share than any of the top four competitors in that
arena. IDC's Q4 2006 estimates show Dell's share of the server market at 8.1%, down from 9.5%
in the previous year. This represents a 8.8% loss year-over-year, primarily to competitors EMC
and IBM.[63]



  %-% (!
The Dell/EMC brand applies solely to products that result from Dell's partnership with EMC
Corporation.[÷

] In some cases Dell and EMC jointly design such products; other cases
involve EMC products for which Dell will provide support ² generally midrange storage
systems, such as fibre channel and iSCSI storage area networks. The relationship also promotes
and sells OEM versions of backup, recovery, replication and archiving software.[64]

On December 9, 2008, Dell and EMC announced the multi-year extension, through 2013, of their
strategic partnership that began in 2001. In addition, Dell plans to expand its product line-up by
adding the EMC Celerra NX4 storage system to the portfolio of Dell/EMC family of networked
storage systems, as well as partnering on a new line of de-duplication products as part of its
TierDisk family of data-storage devices.[65]




 

   
Dell committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its global activities by 40% by 2015,
with 2007 as the baseline year.[66] It is listed in Greenpeace¶s Guide to Greener Electronics that
scores leading electronics manufacturers according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling
and climate change. In May 2010, Dell ranked 10th out of 18 listed electronics makers.[67]

Dell was the first company to publicly state a timeline for the elimination of toxic polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which it planned to phase out by the
end of 2009. It revised this commitment and now aims to remove these toxics by 2011 but only
in its computing products. In March 2010, Greenpeace activists protested at Dell offices in
Bangalore, Amsterdam and Copenhagen calling for Dell¶s founder and CEO Michael Dell to
µdrop the toxics¶ and claiming that Dell¶s aspiration to be µthe greenest technology company on
the planet¶[68] was µhypocritical¶.[69] Dell has launched its first products completely free of PVC
and BFRs with the G-Series monitors (G2210 and G2410) in 2009.[70]



! 
See also: Lawsuits involving Dell Inc.

In the 1990s, Dell switched from using primarily ATX motherboards and PSU to using boards
and power-supplies with mechanically identical but differently wired connectors. This meant
customers wishing to upgrade their hardware would have to replace parts with scarce Dell-
compatible parts instead of commonly available parts. However, company practice in this respect
changed in 2003.[71][72]

In 2005, complaints about Dell more than doubled to 1,533, after earnings grew 52% that
year.[73]

In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service. Issues included call-
transfers[74] of more than 45% of calls and long wait-times. Dell's blog detailed the response:
"We're spending more than a $100 million ² and a lot of blood, sweat and tears of talented
people ² to fix this."[75] Later in the year, the company increased its spending on customer
service to $150 million.[76]
On August 17, 2007, Dell Inc. announced that after an internal investigation into its accounting
practices it would restate and reduce earnings from 2003 through to the first quarter of 2007 by a
total amount of between $50 million and $150 million, or 2 cents to 7 cents per share.[77] The
investigation, begun in November 2006, resulted from concerns raised by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission over some documents and information that Dell Inc. had submitted.[78] It
was alleged that Dell had not disclosed large exclusivity payments received from Intel for
agreeing not to buy processors from a rival manufacturer. In 2010 Dell finally paid $100 million
to settle the SEC's charges of fraud. Michael Dell and other executives also paid penalties and
suffered other sanctions, without admitting or denying the charges.[79]

In May 2008, the New York Supreme Court ruled that Dell and Dell Financial Services "engaged
in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices".
The relevant lawsuit aimed primarily[÷

] to highlight and seek restitution for a lack of
technical support given to customers by Dell. The court plans to hold further proceedings to
determine how much money Dell has to pay out to customers and how much profit Dell made
unlawfully, in New York.

In July 2009, Dell apologized after the firm offered its Latitude E4300 notebook at NT$18,558
(US$580), 70% lower than usual price of NT$60,900 (US$1900) in its Taiwan website. The firm
withdrew orders and offered a voucher of up to NT$20,000 (US$625) a customer in
compensation. The consumer rights authorities in Taiwan fined Dell NT$1 million (US$31250)
for customer rights infringements. Many consumers sued the firm for the unfair compensation. A
court in southern Taiwan ordered the firm to deliver 18 laptops and 76 flat-panel monitors to 31
consumers for NT$490,000 (US$15,120), less than a third of the normal price.[80] The court said
the event could hardly be regarded as mistakes, as the prestigious firm said the company
mispriced its products twice in Taiwanese website within 3 weeks.