Indian PC market growing faster than China: Michael Dell
24 Mar 2010
Founder of the $61-billion PC maker, Dell, Michael Dell, expects India to play a key role in the company's dramatic shift towards selling services to business clients as the company ends its singular dependence on direct sales of personal computers.
Dell, who returned as CEO in 2007 (See: Michael returns to lead Dell) to lead Dell in a move that redefined a hardware company that at one time focused exclusively on direct sales. He sees the Indian market acting as a support base for offshoot Dell International Services seeking to reach beyond technology and consulting services into healthcare, insurance and governance.
''India is a great place to be in. It is growing faster than China for us,'' Dell told reporters yesterday.
Though only 2 per cent of Dell's revenue comes from India, he counts the country among the top three key global markets. Dell has 23,000 employees in India, which makes up about a fourth of its global workforce. Of its nearly 13 per cent share of the Indian market, a big chunk of profits comes from servers, storage and services.
''The India operations are doing well. All businesses in India this quarter are growing more than 100 per cent and the country offers enormous manufacturing opportunities.''
According to some analysts, the company has struggled to shed it exlusive focus on direct sales of PCs to businesses, Dell remains bullish on its future in India. It is banking on a resurgence in the technology spending after, having benefited immensely from the rise in corporate spending just after the meltdown.
''Reaching $60 billion organically was great. But, we found the strategy employed to reach here needed a relook and are now making progress in new areas,'' said Dell. The company, has started selling products to consumers and will focus on selling products to consumers at retail stores. It is also targeting a host of segments including infrastructure management, applications development migration, technology infrastructure consulting and systems integration.