Dell Makes a Comeback

It seems that things are looking up for Dell now that they are dropping the extra bucks for shipping model and are selling in retail stores. I think many computer buyers don't care too much about customizing their PCs. They instead buy based on what they will use it for. So a person buying a "Media Center PC" would expect it to come with a bigger hard drive, DVD,
Media Center Edition of Windows, Remote Control etc. One interesting thing that came from this article is this:

Overall, PC shipments in the first quarter increased 12.3% compared with the first quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, despite fears that souring economic conditions might pinch PC sales.

"Home mobile PC growth continued to drive U.S. PC growth," said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa. "Despite declining consumer confidence, U.S. consumers did not put off mobile PC purchases as evidenced by solid mobile growth during the first quarter."

That sales growth was stimulated in party by aggressive price cuts, Kitagawa added.

Strong demand for laptop PCs resulted in strong than expected growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region as well as in the Asia Pacific region.

I thought growth would slow but 12.3% is pretty impressive. In fact this growth has surpassed last years 8.9% Worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2007. The so-called worst recession since WWII seems to have not crimped PC demand just yet.