18 July 2003 Dell Computer, the world’s largest PC vendor, is changing its name to Dell.

The company, which already has strong market positions in departmental servers and storage systems, wants to drop the ‘Computer’ because, according to company officials, it better reflects its expanded business. A number of analysts, however, believe the change is more symbolic of the company’s future ambitions.

Dell is the clear number one in PCs, increasing its worldwide unit shipments by 29.5% to 5.77 million in the latest quarter and increasing its market share from 14.9% to 17.6%. Furthermore, it controls almost a third of the US PC market. But the company’s CEO, Michael Dell, has ambitions that go way beyond that.

In April, for example, he told Wall Street analysts that he expects to nearly double the company’s revenues to $60 billion during the next few years through a concerted push into servers, storage, printers and services. Many expect Dell to make a big acquisition in the services market — a big announcement on Dell’s services strategy is expected next week.

Shareholders will vote today on whether or not to approve the name change.

Links:
Worldwide PC sales increase by one tenth (17 July 2003)
Dell promises $60bn revenues in ‘next few years’ (4 April 2003)