Dell’s fourth-quarter profit dropped 18 percent to US$764 million from $927 million a year earlier, the company has reported. Sales rose 2 percent to $16 billion, in line with analysts’ estimates.
Sales in the consumer division also fell two percent, indicating Apple is winning over buyers with its Mac and iPad devices at the high end of the market – and Lenovo and Acer at the low end, according to analysts.
US PC shipments declined 4.9 percent last year, the worst performance since 2001, according to research firm IDC.
Dell noted that last year’s flooding in Thailand had crimped disk-drive production. The supply disruption will continue into the quarter that ends in October, the company said.
The PC and server maker claimed record revenue of $62.1 billion for the full financial year, and also record earnings in enterprise solutions and services revenue.
But analysts remained unimpressed. “They’re not showing much in terms of meaningful growth in the top or bottom line. Now we’re at a point where investors may ask, ‘now what?’,” said Evercore’s Rob Cihra.
– In Sydney Dell Australia spokesman Marty Filipowski would not comment on the Australian figures, instead telling CDN that comments would be made at an event on March 9.
