Dell reports increase in earnings and revenues
Dell has said that its net profit in its first quarter rose 35% to $598m or 23 cents per share, from a year earlier when it was $457m, or 17 cents a share.
Revenue was also up, from $8.07bn to $9.53bn, a 18% increase. Dell expects growth to continue into the second quarter, and it is seeing shipments of computers rising by 25% compared to Q2 a year ago.
Dell has been gaining market share from its rivals Hewlett Packard, IBM and Gateway by keeping costs low and selling directly to customers. At the beginning of the 2003 it became the no 1 seller of PCs ahead of Hewlett Packard.
In a breakdown of sales for the first quarter, Dell said that shipments of PCs rose by 29%, while shipment of computer servers rose 40%. Revenue from data storage machine systems rose 65%.
The company saw particularly strong growth in China.
Dell entered the computer printer market in the quarter, and saw more business than it expected.
CFO Jim Schneider was not encouraging about the state of the technology industry and said that Dell had seen growth at the expense of its competitors. He said: " We don’t expect significant near-term improvement in economic or industry conditions."
