Dell Inc. is a multinational technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 76,500 people worldwide as of 2009.
Dell grew during the 1980s and 1990s to become (for a time) the largest seller of PCs and servers. As of 2008 it held the second spot in computer-sales within the industry behind Hewlett-Packard. The company currently sells 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.
In 2006, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 25th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list, 8th on its annual "Top 20" list of the most-admired companies in the United States. In 2007 Dell ranked 34th and 8th respectively on the equivalent lists for the year. A 2006 publication identified Dell as one of 38 high-performance companies in the S&P 500 which had consistently out-performed the market over the previous 15 years.
Products
Scope and brands
The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments:
- Business/Corporate class: including OptiPlex, Latitude, and Precision, where the company's advertising emphasizes long life-cycles, reliability and serviceability:
- OptiPlex - office desktop computer systems
- Vostro - office/small business desktop and notebook systems
- Series - desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed
- Latitude - commercially-focused notebooks
- Precision - workstation systems and high-performance notebooks. (Some of them including Linux pre-installed.)
- PowerEdge - business servers
- PowerVault - direct-attach and some network-attached storage (NAS)
- PowerConnect - network switches
- Dell/EMC - storage area networks (SANs)
- EqualLogic - enterprise class iSCSI SANs
- Home Office/Consumer class: including Inspiron and XPS brands, emphasizing value, performance and expandability:
- Dimension (discontinued) - consumer desktop systems.
- Inspiron - budget desktop and notebook computers.
- Studio - mainstream desktop and laptop computers.
- XPS - high-end desktop and notebook computers.
- Studio XPS - high-end design-focus of XPS systems and extreme multimedia capability
- Alienware (XPS Extreme) - high-performance gaming systems rivaling HP's gaming division, VoodooPC
- Adamo - high-end luxury laptop to compete with the MacBook Air
- Peripherals: Dell has also diversified its product line to include peripheral products such as USB keydrives, LCD televisions, and printers.
- Dell monitors LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitors
- UltraSharp - high-end brand of monitors
- Services and support:
- Dell On Call - extended support services (mainly for the removal of spyware and computer viruses)
- Dell Support Center - extended support services (similar to "Dell On Call") for customers in the EMEA. The Solution Centers also support hardware for customers outside of warranty.
- Dell Business Support - a commercial service-contract that provides an industry-certified technician with a lower call-volume than in normal queues; it covers hardware- and some software-support.
- Dell Everdream Desktop Management - "Software as a Service" remote-desktop management. Lyndon Rive, Elon Musk and other partners sold Everdream to Dell.
- Your Tech Team - a new support-queue available to home users who purchased their systems either through Dell's website or through Dell phone-centers. These customers gain access to a specialized queue. Customers can request a technician with whom they have worked previously, and the technicians can troubleshoot a wider range of problems — including some that would fall under the "Dell on Call" category. Data backup and virus removal remain out-of-scope for this queue.
- Discontinued products/brands:
- Axim - PDAs using Microsoft's Windows Mobile (discontinued on April 9, 2007)
- Dimension - home and "small office, home office" desktop computers (discontinued July 2007; replaced by Inspiron and Vostro desktops)
- Dell Digital Jukebox - MP3 players (discontinued August 2006)
- Dell PowerApp - application-based servers
- Dell Omniplex - 486- and Pentium-based desktop and tower computers previously supported to run server and desktop operating systems.
Dell also offers Red Hat and SUSE Linux for servers; as well as "bare-bones" computers without pre-installed software (available on n Series by default and by request on XPS and Inspiron systems) at significantly lower prices. Due to Dell's licensing contract with Microsoft, Dell allegedly cannot offer those systems on its website and customers have to request them explicitly. (Dell does offer those systems via its web site). Dell has to ship such systems with a FreeDOS disk included in the box and must issue a so-called "Windows refund" or a merchandise credit after sale of the system at the "regular" retail price.
Manufacturing
In the 1980s Dell became a pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing – delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis.
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 – a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very rapidly.
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. However, the company's approach appears to have started to change. The 2006 Annual Report states “we are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.” The Wall Street Journal reported in September, 2008 that “Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their plants.
Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market takes place at Dell plants in Austin, Texas (original location), Lebanon TN (opened in 1999), Winston-Salem NC (opened in 2005) and at the Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary. Dell servers come from Austin, TX.
Dell's desktop plant in Austin, Texas was shut down in 2008. It closed its desktop manufacturing in Labanon TN in early 2009. The last major U.S. plant in North Carolina is scheduled to close in January, 2010. It marks the end for most of Dell's personal computer manufacturing in the United States. It's expected that most of the work carried out in North Carolina will be transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia, though Dell said some of the work will move to its own factories overseas.
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 Lodz by January 2010. European Union officials said they would investigate a €52.7million aid package the Polish government used to attract Dell away from Ireland. 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). Dell’s Alienware subsidiary also manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland plant. Construction of EMF4 in Lodz, Poland has started: Dell started production there in autumn 2007.
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[when?] 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.
