John Moore

But in the Middle East Dell has been unable, or unwilling, to employ its telesales and Internet e-commerce model, and instead has relied on a narrow range of channel partners. Why is that? And is Dell not missing a trick here?

'We have adapted to the local market, and work with our partners to deliver a service which benefits from low operating expenses and product costs that gives us a 15-20% cost advantage over our rivals,' says Mr. Moore who was at the Gitex computer show in Dubai to meet and dine with channel partners.

'In practice, we configure and ship our computers within a few days, and it is not so unlike our direct sales model elsewhere in the world. We have seen our sales rise in this region by 65% year on year, and our customers are looking for leading edge technology for the best value price. We achieve this by using standardized rather than proprietary components and treating computers as a commodity item'.

Dell claims to have a market share of 15% in the UAE and 29% in Saudi Arabia. Has being a US manufacturer been a negative factor since September 11th?

'All the major computer manufacturers are American,' he notes. 'But I think it is fair to say that many of our sales are to corporate customers and they are more influenced by cost rather than politics. We just lever off our supply chain efficiencies and pass on that benefit to the customer.

'Actually the Saudi Arabian distributor is currently reorganizing to operate even more like Dell does in the United States'.

Certainly Dell's cost structure is the envy of its Gulf rivals. The company only has a handful of staff in the region and yet commands serious market share. This compares with the hundreds of staff employed by other regional computer companies.

Globally the lead held by the merged HP/Compaq company over Dell has narrowed from 5.1% to 0.3%, and this is a pattern Dell hopes to repeat in the Middle East.

'We will also be putting a bigger stress on services,' says Mr. Moore. 'We see an enterprise culture that is looking for high levels of reliability to support its product. Servers and storage are also a big market opportunity for us, and overall we want to grow by double digits over the next year.

In the manic tradition of Gitex, Mr. Moore was summoned away to another meeting before any further questions could be asked. But Dell seems destined for further growth as the Middle East market becomes more competitive.