Dell quarterly profits lower than expected

Dell shares have fallen by four per cent after the vendor missed quarterly profit estimates..

Profits fell to US$679 million for the three-month period ending 1 February, despite a US$1.5 billion rise in quarterly revenue from US$14.5 billion to US$16 billion.

Year-on-year laptop revenue rose by almost a quarter, while servers, data storage hardware and desktop PCs all notched up two per cent increases.

Dell warned in a statement that its results could be "adversely impacted by more conservative spending by its customers".

Economists believe that the world's second largest PC manufacturer is more exposed to a downturn than its rivals HP and IBM because of a greater dependence on the US market where spending on technology is expected to slow.

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