Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is going to latch onto the Chinese Government's subsidy of almost $3 billion to that country's farmers. That's right -- perhaps Dell believes those farmers would like to have PCs with that money instead of equipment that could have a more direct impact on the world's third-largest economy.

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.

By now, most companies are finding out that the customer is increasingly in control. Well informed customers, that is. Marketing departments and pricing professionals are discovering that the Internet is allowing the kind of mass communication and sharing of ideas in real-time that puts the power of purchase and even design into the hands of the customer. Soon, long gone will be the days when companies won't take the needs of customers -- from features to prices to support -- as the number-one priority when deciding to bring a product to market. In fact, the internet has shifted, and will keep shifting, more and more power to the end customer.

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has made strides recently in this arena, and almost all of it was after company founder Michael Dell returned to the CEO spot at the end of January as Dell's quarters and future outlook were growing shakier and funkier every month. First up was the Dell IdeaStorm blog, where customers could talk about product wants and concerns they had and "vote up" the most popular suggestions to a point where Dell would actually take a look at them. Result? A vocal minority (but a growing one) wanted Dell to offer the Linux operating system on its machines. Not a few months later, that happened.

When a blog entry surfaced recently that provided tips on how to best score a deal on certain Dell computer systems (using tips from a former sales manager for the computer maker), one of Dell's attorneys went for the jugular and demanded removal of the information. Bad move. Information is power, and this piece was probably empowering Dell customers to get the best for their money using information that made them more informed about their purchase. When Dell realized that it was 2007 and the customer was actually in control of what they wanted to buy and when they wanted to buy it, a Dell manager apologized to the website (Consumerist) and admitted that the company "blew it" by trying to censor the information using legal tactics. Yep -- Dell blew it, but it looks like the company is learning from its mistakes. Power to the people.