The head of the US' Dell Computer Corp said yesterday he wants the firm to double in size by expanding into new business areas and by exploiting the Asia-Pacific market, which is set to become the world's largest for computer systems.
The Texas-based company also aims to become the market leader in Japan, where customer requirements for computers set the trend for other countries to follow, Michael Dell told a news conference in Tokyo.
"We believe that we can double the size of our revenues by pursuing attractive markets and by serving customers," the chairman and chief executive said, without giving a time-scale.
Next year, the Asia-Pacific region including Japan would become the second largest computer market in the world, growing to the largest by 2005, he said.
"This represents a significant opportunity for Dell with many new customers," said Dell.
"Dell has plenty of room to grow across PC servers, storage, services, software peripherals and data networking."
These new areas would ultimately represent 50 percent of the company's total business, said the chief executive.
Customer centered
"We continue to face a challenging market in an economic sense around the world, but Dell is succeeding by maintaining a monocled focus on customers," he said.
Computer makers have suffered from slump in demand over recent years and although the operating environment remained severe, there were signs of a rebound, Dell said.
The worldwide technology market grew by more than five percent in the third quarter this year after shrinking by 13 percent a year earlier.
Dell itself has expanded by 176 percent in the past five years, increasing its global market share to 16 percent from 5.8 percent.
The chief executive was in Japan for the global unveiling of Dell's smallest desktop computer, the OptiPlex SX260 -- the first time Dell has launched a worldwide product from Japan.
"This shows the commitment of Dell in Japan," said country president and chief executive Hiroshi Hamada, adding the firm should end 2002 as the nation's fourth largest computer maker after finishing the third quarter in the number five slot.
If the SX260 launch in a success, Dell would launch more products from Japan, the chief executive said.
"We are quite confident this product will be well received," said Dell.
"We used to think Japanese customer requirements were different [from the rest of the world] but what we have come to learn is that the Japanese market is early in its demand for new [functions] ... and the rest of the markets follow after Japan."
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