Since returning in January 2007 to the company he founded in 1984, Michael Dell has set many things straight with Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL). It's widely known that some of the best stewards of public companies are the founders, and this is certainly the case with Dell himself. Entering retail in a large way, busting out plenty of new designs, and concentrating on laptop sales have given Dell an edge to use against PC market leader Hewlett-Packard Corporation (NYSE: HPQ), which wrestled the world's largest PC maker crown from Dell in 2006.

Dell is now saying that his company will see more sales growth in 2008 than the overall PC market as a whole. No, this isn't just due to being more in retail with colorful laptops in the U.S. market. Most of the demand that will allow Dell to outpace the industry growth rate will come from strong demand in emerging markets like India and China.

Dell recently said ''The emerging markets are a big part of our growth ... 'Dell will continue to grow faster than the rest of the industry, certainly for the remainder of this year.'' Those are pretty strong words, but it's not surprising. In many instances, companies are pinning their hopes on international sales growth to balance out tepid waters in the U.S. market. Even up until recent times, the red-hot U.S. market was comfortable.

But that's not so much now as gas prices and a bombing mortgage market has turned off the consumer flame. The auto industry is the most lucidly aware of having a balanced product mix globally, and PC makers are there as well. Dell beat HP's shipment growth 21% to 17% in the quarter ended in June, so it's hitting on more cylinders every quarter.