Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) came in second to global PC sales leader Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) during the Black Friday shopping frenzy and the ensuing weekend, according to analyst firm Thomas Weisel Partners. The report, however, analyzed sales only at a single retailer, Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY).

Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid indicated that holiday PC buyers were preferring Hewlett-Packard's PC five to one over Dell's PCs at the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. While Reid's survey only looked at 35 stores, that's enough to generate a statistically legitmate finding. Reid went on to say that "Dell has significant work to do . . . the only negative comments in our survey with respect to brand were aimed at Dell, with survey respondents noting potential quality issues.''

Is Dell's retail strategy working as well as founder Michael Dell had hoped when he aggressively launched his retail strategy in the summer of 2007? Doubtful, and competitor HP has not stood still since that moment, and has actually increased its market share in retail with stylish designs, many configurations and aggressive pricing that keeps a large thumb on Dell's retail efforts. From looking at some of the top retailers this past three-day shopping holiday, HP's laptop offerings were certainly more numerous than Dell's. If that presence translates to more shelf space, then there you go.

Dell, Inc. NASDAQ: DELL) indicated this week that it has no plans to re-enter the digital music player market. For some reason, the blogosphere has been abuzz in recent weeks with possible rumors about Dell -- again -- trying to compete in the digital MP3 player market. With its astounding success the last time around, it makes perfect sense, right? Of course not.

Although Dell has reinvigorated its laptop PC designs in the last 18 months, has entered retail and has gained a little of the market share back it lost of Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ), the fact remains that it makes boring, commodity computer equipment. Nothing more. Almost every single time the company wants to break into another market, the competition beats them down and spits them out. So, it's good to hear that Dell won't be getting back into the digital audio player market.

The weird twist here is that Dell purchased Zing Software recently, which made wireless access technology for over-the-air audio and video downloads to digital audio players. It's interesting to see that Dell bought Zing but less in 18 months later said it would not re-enter the hardware music player business. Of course, a lot has changed for the company in that time (and in the PC industry), and launching new products and categories in this economic environment is precarious at best. Perhaps Dell has shelved digital audio players until sometime in 2010 or later.

If you're seeking out a new PC for your own holiday gift or for someone near and dear, some research says you're probably looking at Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) or Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to fill your need. ChangeWave said yesterday that two-thirds of those looking to buy a laptop PC this holiday season have visions of Steve Jobs or Michael Dell dancing in their heads. Interesting, since Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) outsells both of them by a huge stretch in the U.S. market.

I'm not sure where ChangeWave conducted its survey (perhaps college campuses?), but it revealed that 33% of the 3,699 respondents stated they would be buying an Apple Mac if they would be buying in the next 90 days, while the same amount -- 33% -- indicated a Dell laptop purchase was on the radar this season.

Since the consumer market is the one keeping PC makers in business (as businesses have stopped almost all PC purchasing), it's just astounding that HP and even PC makers like Sony, Toshiba and Acer weren't mentioned in this research. Regardless, it's good for Apple. The company has continued to defy expectations by selling higher-priced laptops at an increasing rate every quarter throughout 2008.

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) said yesterday that it will sell a 900-person customer support call center in El Salvador to an outsource company that handles support for large global corporations. Stream Global Services, Inc. will take over the customer support center as Dell continues to find ways to slash costs as much as it can.

Stream Global indicated that it will enhance the center to handle upcoming support needs from emerging Latin American markets. My question is this: is Dell once again having an identity crisis about running its own support organization? After all, this is the company that outsourced some U.S.-based support to India a while back, an effort that fell flat on its face. Yes, there is a difference between support centers in India that take care of U.S. customers and Latin American support centers taking care of Latin American customers.

Still, Dell should once and for all just outsource global support for its consumer product lines and call it a day. But wait a minute -- isn't the consumer market the one Dell has used in the last 18 months to claw its way back to growth after discovering consumer retail sales were a sales holy grail? Yes it is. And there are some heavy competitors in the commodity PC business these days, along with a market share-grabbing Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to deal with. At this time, Dell, did not have any comment on the possible sale of other global call centers. The company probably does not know what it wants to do. It wouldn't be the first time.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stepped up its market share in Q3, lifting its personal computer sales to nearly 10% of all PCs sold, according to research firm Gartner, Inc. For Apple, this is great news -- it's steadily taking sales from larger competitors Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and global PC sales leader Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ). Its laptop PCs continue to sell like hotcakes, even with prices that are much higher than the discount prices you would normally see on Windows-based laptop PCs.

Although Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last week that the company won't be getting into the "netbook" business (tiny notebook PCs with limited features), a Gartner research analyst said the company could be in trouble for not having a product to address this market. I think Apple is right here, though; just because there is a market doesn't mean Apple needs to play in it. The laptop PC industry continues to try and find the next big niche so that product segments like fully-functional laptop PCs won't see decelerating growth. When there is a lack of demand, create it; that must be the PC industry's rallying call.

With Apple releasing quarterly earnings in just over an hour from now, my prediction is that the current quarter's results will reflect a company that is timing its product releases, refreshes and entire product line transitions with great precision. It has shown that it can grow market share without being involved in trends that others create. Rather, it creates its own trends and gives birth to new industries as a result.

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has been known in the last three of four years as a "me too" PC manufacturer. Sure, it was the world's largest PC maker until rival Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) stole that crown in 2006 and hasn't looked back. When Dell founder Michael Dell came back to the CEO spot in January 2007, his resultant changes has given Dell the push it needed. Some changes, though, are just plain head-scratching.

Unlike the gutsy and excellent move back onto the retail shelf, Dell announced last week that it would allow DVD-quality downloads from partner CinemaNow to be downloaded and then burned to a special "Qflix" DVD hardware drive. This new drive will apparently sell for $120 and will be available as an option on most newer Dell laptop models. The question is this: does Dell really see a market need for yet another DVD standard to allow the 10-step process of getting digital content from a partner to a DVD disc for some kind of archival purpose by any of its customers?

The point here is that Dell wants to be the customer's source for downloading actual DVD content (complete with menus, alternate audio and all the other DVD goodies) to your PC. Unless you're extremely patient, I can only imagine the length of time it will take to "download" all this to a Dell PC. Perhaps a workday? The point is that until we have a huge increase in broadband internet speeds in the U.S. for the consumer market and consumers expect functionality like this to be free, something like this will flop except for the early adopter and geek crowd. But hey, that's never stopped a PC maker from exploring odd niche product categories before, right?

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) founder and current CEO Michael Dell said this week at the Citigroup technology conference in New York that his company may make a wireless smartphone. Sigh. This rhetoric is getting ridiculous. I am sure Dell hired former Motorola wireless division chieftain Ron Garriques to man the company's technical support lines. Note to Michael Dell: just announce a friggin' phone already and get over it.

In recent years (until about the end of 2007), Dell's formulaic "me too" stance in non-PC electronics like flat-screen televisions, MP3 players and others have fallen flat on their respective faces. When the company saw the market for PDAs dissolving into nothing, it stopped making its Axim line of Windows Mobile PDAs -- which were regarded by some as some of the nicer ones on the market. Yet, it has not replaced that PDA line with a smartphone that is very powerful but features voice calling plus 3G wireless data. In other words, it's way behind the market here. Ask Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) about its iPhone sales for more elaboration on this.

Dell himself stated at the Citigroup conference, "I think you will see us with small screen devices ... you'll see us with smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the devices you are referring to. Not in the near-term." What does that mean? Sometime in 2010 we'll see Dell with another me-too smartphone that's cookie-cutter and years behind the competition? If that's the plan, Dell's new smartphone had better be game-changing like Apple's iPhone was in 2007. If not, Dell's history of making commodity products will ring up another boring (but sellable and profitable) semi-winner.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has turned on the heat within the computer server market, taking first place in server growth in the latest quarter according to Gartner. Dell's server sales climbed 15% during the April-Jun quarter, outpacing an 11.5% gain at IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and a 2.9% increase at Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ). How did Dell run so much farther ahead of HP and IBM last quarter?

Although an economic pinch in the U.S. is affecting about every industry, computer server shipments worldwide rose 12% during the latest quarter, reaching 2.34 million units and $13.8 billion in sales. Although IBM still held onto the top spot with 31.2% market share, HP saw a small drop to 27.6% from 28.4% market share while Dell upped its market share a single percentage point to 13%. HP still delivered more server units than Dell for the quarter, however.

Does this point to a long-term trend in Dell's server sales success? Hardly. But, the Texas company has concentrated hard in the last few quarters in consumer retail exposure and svelte laptop PC designs as well as server systems -- and both efforts are making an impact. Dell's road to gaining the foothold it once held is easily underway, but it will continue needing more overseas growth as the U.S. market withers until sometime in 2009.

With Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) already having inked a solid relationship last year, it should be no surprise that the PC company would be partnering with the world's largest retailer to test out in-store technical support services.

The experiment involves 15 stores in the Dallas, Texas region. These "Solution Stations by Dell" will focus on home theater installations, PC repair, and wireless network setup assistance. It's hard to see how in-store kiosks can assist customers who then have to take all that equipment home, but for a Dell brand builder alone, the partnership is quite unique.

I'm a bit puzzled how Dell will be able to assist with home theater questions and installations, but that's besides the point. If Wal-Mart really intends to compete with the in-store technical support concept, it needs to attack Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (NYSE: BBY) Geek Squad model and really add some value to that consumer experience. Consumer electronics are more confusing than ever for most U.S. consumers, and having some properly seasoned experts in many Wal-Mart stores to help with all those questions would be of enormous benefit.

Not only would Dell's image be polished if this experiment is successful and the Solution Station kiosk concept goes into more Wal-Mart store locations, but the retailer has a real chance to keep it on top of world in terms of consumer electronics purchases. Circuit City, Inc.'s (NYSE: CC) Firedog concept has been left behind as that retailer continues swirling down the drain, so Wal-Mart and Best Buy may be the only ones that could give technical support on a national stage in all locations. Best Buy, though, is already positioned well ahead of Wal-Mart here. It's Wal-Mart's game to lose.

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has done an admirable job of taking back control of its sales in recent quarters. After getting stomped by Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) in the last 18 months, the Round Rock, Texas company has installed itself in over 10,000 retail locations across the U.S. and in other countries and has started growing its marketshare back. Gone are the days of the direct-only business; in are the days of a multi-channel selling model. Nowhere is this more evident than in Dell's laptop PC sales.

The company has taken back the number two spot in global laptop PC sales from Taiwan's Acer by growing its marketshare for such products to 15.1% of all global laptop PC sales as of its last quarter. In addition, that figures includes a whopping 45% growth in its year-over-year laptop PC shipments. It's amazing what a few quarters and retail availability can do to one's laptop PC sales, yes?

Dell is making steady process to see if it can inch back into leading quarterly PC sales on a global basis with HP, but it won't be easy. The Palo-Alto competitor just announced more than 50 new products this week (its biggest launch ever within that segment), and many of the newly-announced products are new consumer laptop PC designs. HP, the current king of the laptop PC hill with over 35% of the market, won't give up that spot -- or even a single marketshare point -- easily. But then again, Dell's efforts so far have shown great results. the race to the top of the laptop sales world is on.

Although the PC industry keeps churning out growth quarter after quarter, the American market is slipping as a larger influence on all that growth, according to the market research firm IDC. In the latest quarter of tracking data, the U.S. saw just a 3.5% growth rate in shipped PCs, about half of IDC's projection. The reason? According to IDC, the "recession scare" kept PC sales at bay for many corporations as belt-tightening meant less information technology spending.

Global PC sales, though, were above expectations for the most recent quarter, which saw growth come in at over 14% -- a few percentage points above expectations. The European region saw much of this growth, where consumers increasingly opted for inexpensive portable PCs like the Asus Eee PC, similar to the trend the U.S. is seeing. However, these cheaper and smaller portable PCs still make up only a small fraction of overall PC sales.

Although the top spot in quarterly shipments still belonged to Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) -- which grew shipments 17.4% -- Dell, Inc. (NYSE: DELL) saw shipments rise as impressive 21.6% for the quarter as the PC maker continued its comeback after a nasty 2007. Dell's retail presence and emphasis on laptop PCs was heralded as being responsible for its growth as the Texas company remained in the #2 spot in overall sales. In the #3 spot was again Taiwan's Acer, which grew its shipments a staggering 66%. Acer folded in the recent acquisitions of both Europe's Packard Bell and Gateway from the U.S. to hit those numbers, but both acquisitions closed a few quarters ago, so they're not new. In fact, Acer's total shipments were down 20% from the year-ago quarter even though they were highest among the top-five PC makers.