Dr Walid Moneimne

'In Q3 this year Dell became the number one computer retailer in the UK for the first time, so this shows how this kind of dynamic can work,' he says.

At present Dell can claim a 12% market share in the UAE and 15% in Saudi Arabia overall, while the best performance is in desktop PCs in the Kingdom with a 17% market share.

'Dell is currently a $40 billion a year company worldwide, and the plan is to turnover $60 billion by 2006. People not unreasonably ask: where is all that growth to come from?

'One source of growth will be our traditional PC business,' says Dr Moneimne. 'Second will be servers and storage which is growing even faster, and we are moving to the standardization of enterprise servers into simple building blocks, a clear advantage for Dell. Third, the market for services is growing.

'And finally we have software and peripherals. At Gitex Dell launched its own range of printers for the first time. This is a major move and will be worth 10-15% of group turnover.

'Dell has always been a big reseller of other manufacturer's printers, so designing and developing our own makes a lot of sense as we now participate in the whole value chain.'

OK, so Dell is growing fast. What is the Dell value proposition? What makes Dell different in a world where computers are all starting to look the same?

'We have always had a unique value proposition,' says Dr. Moneimne who holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Grenoble and has also completed an MBA.

'Dell has optimized every part of the delivery chain and passed that advantage on to the customer, inventory is run on a matter of hours rather than weeks, and everything is custom built to order. Typically we are ahead in technology and lowest in cost.'

That may be true. But in the Middle East Dell sells through a partnership network and does not use its famous direct online selling model. Indeed, around 50% of global sales are online, making Dell the largest online retailer in the world, far bigger than Amazon.com. So when will Dell start selling direct to its customers in the Middle East?

'Take a step back a moment,' says Dr. Moneimne. 'We already pass on all the advantages of the direct selling model to customers in the Middle East. They get the customization, good pricing, flexibility and speed of delivery.

'It is not possible to order online and we would prefer to continue with our partner model because the regional markets have different legal and customs frameworks.

'But we are not very far away from direct selling online in the way we approach large corporate clients. They can even get their own website with product inventory. Only the final invoice is missing. It comes from our partners rather than Dell.'

Thus Dell's customers in the Middle East are getting a virtual online service with the same ability to configure systems through the Internet and browse brochures. So is it plausible that Dell may achieve the No1 position in this region in the same way that it has just done in the UK?

Other manufacturers will have something to say about that. But it is possible, and the brutal logic of the Dell sales machine is set on this target.