Dell, the world's second-largest computer maker, is seeing softness in demand for personal computers due to the global economic downturn, but hopes to increase market share in emerging markets such as India, a senior official said today.
Dell, which employs more than 4,000 staff in Ireland, in August posted a steep drop in second-quarter profit, as slow demand for PCs spread from the US corporate sector to the public sector and small businesses, and to Europe and Asia.
"We already talked about seeing a little bit of softness in demand. We were pretty clear about that number of weeks ago," chief marketing officer Mark Jarvis told reporters.
But Mr Jarvis, who reports to CEO Michael Dell, said Dell would outpace the industry in unit shipments in the second half of the year, as it sharpens its focus on markets such as India, where the companies are stepping up investments on technology.
"We believe that an economic slowdown will eliminate some of our marginal competitors and will give us the ability to gain share and we are strategically focused on gaining that share in a number of markets," Mr Jarvis said.
"We are extremely bullish on India," he said.
Chief Executive Dell told reporters in Shanghai yesterday the company was performing well in unit shipments compared with the overall industry, and expected to grow faster than the industry this year.
The company said in August it had slashed 8,500 jobs out of a planned 8,900 headcount reduction, as it realigns its business to confront slowing demand.
Dell, which has a computer-making facility in southern India, sees huge opportunity in India where only 12 per cent to 13 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses use information technology, Jarvis said.
"I should stress that when we look at our share in countries around the world, we see enormous opportunity in India to grow that share," he said, after launching a new marketing campaign for India.
Personal computer shipments in Asia excluding Japan grew 12 per cent to 20.2 million units in the third quarter, researcher IDC said in preliminary data released on Monday. The growth figure was 2 per cent short of its forecast for the region.
Reuters