Will Dell's (DELL) China strategy boost its bottom line?

The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) intends to sell desktops and notebooks in China through Chinese retailer, Gome Group, whose 1,000 stores in 168 Chinese cities will help Dell expand its presence in the world's second-largest PC market by shipments.

Dell, which stumbled in this decade by missing a market shift away from corporate -- which liked its direct selling strategy -- and towards individual PC purchases, is trying to regain its lead with the return of its founder Michael Dell to the CEO slot. But in China, Dell is number four behind Lenovo Group Ltd and Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) -- deriving $6.6 billion of its revenues, 12% of its 2006 total, from sales in Asia Pacific and Japan.

Dell's deal with Gome Group will give it a chance to sell to individual Chinese buyers, who like to try out a PC in a store before buying it. And with revenues growing at 25%, the Chinese market is certainly big and getting bigger. But Dell did not say how much of each PC sales dollar it will share with Gome Group. If Dell matched HP's 4.8% PC net profit margin, it could add $48 million to its bottom line for every $1 billion of additional revenue through Gomes.

That's nothing to sneeze at, but it represents a mere 1.7% of Dell's most recent 12-months net income of $2.8 billion in net income.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates,. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has has no financial interest in Dell, Lenovo, or Hewlett Packard.