Dell systems now selling at Wal-Mart locations

Yesterday marked the quick-and-deliver day that PC maker Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). was to begin selling two of its Dimension E521 PC models inside Wal-Mart stores nationwide. Two models, priced at $498 and $698, will now join Hewlett-Packard, Acer and other manufacturers on Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) shelves. Is this a new long-term strategy or some kind of experiment to appease Wall Streeters who are screaming for Dell to compete more heavily against Hewlett-Packard? Read on.

After having quickly looked at PCs available at www.walmart.com, the entry of Dell's desktop PCs should not really send some kind of stampeding PC sales shock wave in the collective aisles of Wal-Mart electronics departments. In fact, this "experiment" by Dell may just be a way for the retailer to get rid of some aging inventory and get its feet wet in the retail game at the same time. If you think "Dell is back in retail!" as a main theme of why it so rapidly announced and made available some of its lower-end products in the U.S. stores of the world's largest retailer, think again. This is a test or possibly a one-off activity by Dell, plain and simple.

The question is how this experiment will shape up. Will customers immediately recognize the Dell brand inside Wal-Mart stores and flock to purchase these Dimension systems? Hard to day, since Wal-Mart doesn't really break out sales of PCs (all brands) -- so who knows how many total PCs Wal-Mart actually sells (beyond industry analyst estimates). If Dell sees the limited amount of PCs is sold Wal-Mart having a tepid response there, what will it do? Move on to the next experiment? Where?