Will push into Staples save Dell's holiday sales?

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) will begin selling its PCs in Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) office supply stores as of November 11, according to both companies. The PC lineup will include Dell's Inspiron 530 desktop PCs and two versions of Inspiron notebooks, as well as supplemental Dell products like all-in-one printers and flat-panel LCD monitors.

Will this help Dell have a strong holiday sales push? Possibly, but it's doubtful.

Dell's deal with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) was grand when it was announced, but since the company has given no specific performance figures on how well its retail effort in Wal-Mart has fared, it's hard to gauge how customers will react to Dell's brand in Staples. Does Staples even sell many PCs?

Dell systems in Wal-Mart stores reflected an aura of older or overstocked parts assembled into PCs and dumped into Wal-Mart's parking lot, rather than any specific computer build made for the retailer, and I'm not so sure customers have responded in droves to buy Dells inside those local Wal-Mart stores. Not enough time has gone by, though, so I could be jumping the gun here.

Dell's latest partnership will put its PCs and products into 1,400 more retail locations, which will instantly give it more exposure to the American buying public. Perhaps that is what Dell is going after here -- mass exposure (which brings a certain amount of purchases) instead of strategic, slower partnerships. Dell is expected to strike more retail agreements in the next 12 to 18 months, but not without challenges, according to Robert W. Baird analyst Daniel Renouard. Dell is now significantly behind competitor Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) in overall computer system sales, and these retail efforts are considered by many to be a desperate attempt to win back market share. Right now, it's too early to attribute any success or failure in that effort.