Dell slide continues

DELL'S FINANCIAL annus horribilis has come to an end with the PC giant continuing to see numbers head the wrong way. It reported $14.4bn in revenue for its fourth quarter, down about five percent on the year-ago figure as PC sales continued to crumble.

However, while a lot of people would like to consign Dell with Windows to the scrapheap of history, it's too early to start writing obituaries. We should get a better indicator of Dell's performance when Vista PC sales kick in to businesses later this year.

On the brighter side of its financials, Dell continues to be profitable -- $801m for the quarter, and there are plenty of companies who would like to be able to say that. Also, international revenue is now 46 percent of its total and Dell is still sitting on about $12.5bn in cash and equivalents.

New management could also provide some fresh ideas. Michael Dell recently kicked himself back upstairs to the CEO seat and appointed senior executives from Motorola and Solectron to help him.

Here is the canned quote from the earnings press release: "We are disappointed with the company's results, but what matters is our future plan of action. We are systematically moving to increase efficiencies, improve execution and transform the company,” said Chairman and CEO Michael Dell. “Our business model will become more aligned with the needs of our customers, which will improve their experience and yield improved growth and profitability for the long-term."

"Becoming more aligned with the needs of customers" includes the IdeaStorm suggestions site that earlier this week resulted in Suse-certified PCs, although no preloads. This could be a good time to be talking to Dell as the company should be bending over backwards to keep customers onside.

However, the monkey on Dell's back could be the ongoing investigation into its accounting practices. µ