John Moore

1. How much will Dell sales expand in the Middle East this year? And what are your sales targets for the next few years?

EMEA is a focus for Dell and over the last Quarter, it has contributed 19% of Dell's revenue. Dell's commitment to EMEA continues to be strong.

Whilst we are unable to comment on specific regional figures, in the last quarter, Dell were ranked Number two in the Middle East across all form factors with a market share of 9%.

2. Do you think the current international emergency will impact on your business here? How are you responding to it?

We believe that it's too early to be commenting on any specific impact to business and our primary concern following this tragic event was related to human loss.

Dell has made every effort to ensure those affected by the events are assisted as quickly as possible. Our Customer records allow us to advise our Customers on their specific IT requirements and our internal business processes enabled us to prioritise urgent fulfilment of our affected Customers orders. Dell remains committed to supporting the businesses affected through technology and Dell's charitable contributions.

Dell's internal business systems were not affected and our operations continue to function. Dell continues to believe in the opportunity presented by the Middle East and it is businesses as usual in the region.

3. Dell was very aggressive in cutting its prices in the face of the IT downturn. Was this the right strategy? And what will it deliver for Dell and the consumer here?

Dell's core focus continues to be to meet the needs of our customers through delivering the highest quality products at great prices with the best possible service and support - we are totally focused on delivering the best possible Customer Experience. Whilst we continue to focus on our entire product range including desktops, notebooks, workstations, servers, and storage, we are experiencing rapid growth in Enterprise (server and storage) products, and in our notebooks.

Our market leading build-to-order business model gives us fundamental advantages in terms of being able to achieve this core focus, whilst at the same time driving the most competitive prices and growing our market share. Our recent results have shown that our strategy is working as we continue to grow at multiples of the overall market, and we continue to grow our market share profitably.

For customers in the Middle East this means a continued focus from Dell and our partners on delivering the best possible Customer Experience, providing the highest quality products at great prices with the best possible service and support.

4. What is Dell's view of the impending HP/Compaq marriage? And do you expect more shotgun weddings in the sector?

We are not commenting on any of the specifics of the proposed acquisition. The proposed acquisition is an extension of the consolidation that has been occurring in our industry for several years. This consolidation trend has been forced by expressed customer preference for quality products based industry standards (including server and storage products), coupled with great service, offered at a low cost; this proposed acquisition is a continuation of that trend.

At the same time, customers have been making clear statements about which companies provide the best product quality, service and cost, and Dell has been the primary beneficiary of those choices.

We intend to continue executing our current strategy of offering customers a high-quality range of products, combined with great service, for a low price. The strategy enables us to take market share profitably and continue growing two-to-three times faster than the market, which we also intend to continue.

5. How do you plan to develop your Middle East marketing base? And which countries are the most IT friendly?

Dell continues to invest in the training and development of our partners across the region - we are finding significant opportunities in all countries across the Middle East. Examples our recent investments include the introduction of the Dell Authorised Service Partner (DASP) programme, and a similar certification programme focused Sales and Marketing for our partners, and on-going development of our Extranet solution which enables partners to gain access to a wide range of information essential to day-to-day business

We continue to work very closely with our carefully selected partners to align service capabilities and to deliver exceptional products and services to our Customers. Whilst we continue to focus on our entire product range, we are seeing exceptional demand for our Notebooks and Enterprise Products (Servers and Storage). Our underlying growth in the region continues to be strong, and on top of this we have also won some major projects in various countries - more details of these may be released in due course.


6. What does Dell plan to offer to visitors at Gitex in terms of new products?

Latest products on display at Gitex include ;

• Optiplex GX240 Desktop - the latest Intel Pentium 4 product which is now the mainstream corporate desktop

• Precision 340 - the latest Intel Pentium 4 workstation

• Precision 530 - the latest Intel Xeon based workstation

• Precision 730 - the latest Intel Itanium based workstation

• Latitude C810 - currently our most powerful 'desktop replacement' notebook

• Latitude C400 - due to be launched in November this will be the mobile executives power notebook in an ultra-light form factor

• PowerEdge 7150 - our latest Intel Itanium based quad processor server

• PowerEdge 500SC - our latest entry level Intel Pentium III server - a true server designed from the 'bottom up', but at desktop prices!

• Also being displayed at Gitex will be our TrueMobile wireless networking solution, our range of Optiplex desktops and Latitude Notebooks. Together with a wide range of rack mounted server and storage solutions.

7. Do you think that the PC has become a commodity item like a washing machine? And if not, why not?

As technology continues to shift, people are keen to invest in the new technologies available. Dells strategy has always been to drive commoditisation and as the low cost provider, we believe that whilst the PC will not become a commodity, we would like to make buying a computer as easy as possible within the market.

In today's market, computers are available via resellers, mail order or directly from the manufacturer. The Internet and e-commerce has accelerated the number of computers people own. Just like buying a commodity, Dell continues to look for ways to make doing business with us as simple as possible.

8. Do you think Dell will come out of the current IT recession stronger than when it went in? And who will be the winners and losers in the sector?

We have our most intense focus on maintaining and enhancing our structural competitive advantage. Dell continues to deliver exceptional value and service to our Customers to meet their needs. We believe that in difficult times, the strongest player with the highest quality products and excellent support will come through in a good position. We believe that our robust business model provides us with a sound structure on which to continue to build our businesses in difficult times.