Dell shows IT industry is recovering

THE WORST of the industry's woes are over if Dell's latest figures are anything to go by. It's last quarter saw a rise in revenue of 18% compared with last year.

The company is cock-a-hoop about the results, saying that they are the firm's best ever first quarter figures. The company's revenue for the period was $9.5 billion and net earnings were a shade under $600 million.

The firm pins much of the result on strong demand for its servers and storage systems. It also claims that customers think Dell is great. Well, it would, wouldn't it? But there is likely to be more to the results than people liking Dell.

One of the things that has started to shine through after around two years of the industry being in nose-dive mode is that certain firms are making clear headway. Dell is showing that customers are starting to buy again. Not that they ever really stopped buying, there was just a bit of a pause for most of them.

So, while Dell pins a medal of credit to its corporate chest, the results can perhaps be seen in a different light. If firms are buying lots of new servers, that points to lots of new projects starting up. Expect to see far more firms reporting profits over this quarter. It's almost time for companies to finally get over the dotcom bubble trouble. µ