Dell expects customers to start spending next year as the
market moves from its current stabilisation to recovery, but the PC
maker has held back from stating that the market has reached the
bottom.
The views of the supplier's senior management about the state of
the market came at the announcement of its Q2 results which
surprised market watchers with revenue and net income holding up
better than expected.
Compared to 2009 revenue was down 22% to $12.8bn and net income
fell by 23% to $472m. But underneath those declines there were
signs of improvement with shipments increasing by 10% and revenue
was up 3% from the fiscal first quarter.
Large enterprise business remained depressed with a 32% decline
on the Q2 a year earlier, SME business was down 29% and the
consumer operation saw a 9% drop compared to the fiscal 2009
results.
Dell benefited from a cost cutting programme and has seen growth
in the emerging markets of Brazil, India, Russia and China.
Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell, said that the firm had
been successful in cutting costs and anticipated a recovery in IT
spending. "If current demands trends continue, we expect revenue
for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first
half," he said.
He added that Dell was investing in its enterprise and services
businesses and the vendor is expecting strong public sector
business in the third quarter.
"Dell believes a refresh cycle in commercial accounts is more
likely to occur in 2010, with IT spending improving first in the
US. The company continues to see pressure in the form of component
costs and areas of aggressive pricing in the near term, and
continues to take actions to offset these items. The company will
continue to focus on implementing cost improvements and strategic
investments to improve operations for the long term," Dell
said.