Australia lags behind Dell's APAC growth figures

Global revenue in Q2 was US$16.4 billion, which is said to be driven by a 19 percent increase in worldwide product shipments.

According to Steve Felice, Dell’s President of Asia Pacific and Japan, the company now takes second place Asia -- behind Hewlett Packard -- in the Asian PC market.

Despite the current economic slowdown, Felice is optimistic about Dell’s prospects and expects to continue expanding its coverage of products, countries and market segments.

“Clearly, GDP positions have come down from six months ago,” Felice said, adding that while revenue growth has not been as robust in recent times, Dell’s results still are ‘healthy’.

“In general, our outlook hasn’t really changed,” he said.

“Our statement has been cautionary in terms of economic change; these [economic] conditions can signal potential problems going forward, but we haven’t experienced any problems yet.”

In the Asia Pacific and Japan region, Dell has been most successful in India, which in Q2 reported a revenue growth of 59 percent and unit growth of 63 percent.

Dell’s China business also performed above the regional average, reporting a revenue growth of 33 percent and unit growth of 38 percent.

Australia lagged slightly behind the regional average, generating a revenue growth of 19 percent and unit growth of 15 percent.

However, Felice denied there being any particularly weak markets, commenting that Dell’s ‘strong’ growth in Australia is led by SMB and enterprise purchases.

“Australia has had a very strong quarter,” he said. “We’ve won quite a few government panel contracts that have driven that growth, and we’ve had quite a lot of general commercial business as well.”

Looking forward, the company is expected to invest in expanding its services offerings.

The recent launch of its new Vostro A range of notebooks and desktops also signals a focus on, and investment in, developing targeted products for emerging countries.

“In terms of aggressiveness, I think we’ve taken quite a bold step in introducing these products,” Felice said about the new Vostro A products that were designed based on customer feedback in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

As the global economic slowdown pressures businesses to reduce costs, Dell also will focus on reinforcing the benefits of simplifying IT.

Felice highlighted IT’s potential to increase productivity and cut costs, and expects the scalability of products like Dell’s building-block data centres to appeal to cost-conscious businesses.

“What we’re doing now, as always when customers have cost concerns, is stress the importance of scalability, and I think that’s why we’ve been so successful in the enterprise space,” he said.

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