Stephanie Blankenship (bio)

Just a few weeks ago, the company grew cautious about 3Q sales. Now, it seems, Dell expects to grow faster than its competition. In part, the company expects to accomplish this by stepping up its retail channel presence in the U.S., China and Europe. Michael Dell also noted that despite the current economic uncertainty, sales are growing in developing economies such as Brazil, Russia, China, India.

This seems like good news, but financial instabilty has spread to those very overseas markets Dell mentions, so will consumer spending on items like PCs and laptops hold up during the next few quarters? Dell may well outpace its competition, but if sales worldwide retract, being on top of a diminshing heap may not stand for much. Dell is very diversified in products, markets and even sales strategy, so it may well stand as a test case going forward.