How Dell managed to take one of the leading positions in the market
The American computer manufacturer Dell is one of the largest in the world. Its laptops have become synonymous with reliability and perfectly combine style and performance. The founder of the company is Michael Dell, who started the business in 1984 on the campus of his university with a capital of one thousand dollars. During this time, the corporation has gone through many difficult periods but has been able to maintain consumer confidence.
Mike Dell had an entrepreneurial streak from an early age. Even before he opened the company, he was moonlighting, selling subscriptions to various magazines. After attending the University of Texas, Dell used his earnings to buy an Apple II computer. He was interested in the potential of such equipment on the market, and the young man began to actively research the needs of consumers. The largest PC manufacturer at the time was IBM, which worked through intermediaries. As a result, the price of the computer for the end consumer was 40% higher than the production cost, in addition, the configuration of equipment could not be changed.
Then Mike decided to start his own company, PC’s Limited, which could offer PCs at a lower cost than the market. To do this, the entrepreneur bought up components from warehouses and assembled computers to order. This option was 15% cheaper. In just one year Dell produced over a thousand PCs and decided to create his own computer. The device saw the light of day in 1984 and was called the Turbo PC, followed by another model. Rapid business development allowed it to enter the European market already by 1987. To do this, the company changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation. In 1990, annual revenue growth was 80 percent, and Dell held an IPO on the NASDAQ exchange.
The company vigorously expanded its product line, a few years later adding server systems, which were the most powerful at the time. In 1996, Dell was one of the first to make online purchasing of its equipment available, with the Latitude model laptops being the most successful with consumers.
Despite the fact that laptops occupied the bulk of the company’s sales, Dell decided to change course by introducing PowerEdge servers to the market. This move proved to be the right one, and by 2001 the company had taken a leading position in the server sector. Actively produced new models of laptops and home computers, and provided services for equipment maintenance and software installation.
By 2013 the company focused on the development of innovative technologies and this required resources. It was decided to buy shares of Dell from shareholders and become a private business again. Such a move yielded results, and since 2015 the company’s turnover has been growing steadily, although not without problems.
