Dell CEO: On "steady" PC demand and farming in China

Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell appeared optimistic about the PC market during a speech on Thursday, with high hopes pinned on the Chinese market.

Speaking about the global market, he said during his speech in China: "Week on week, the demand for PC sales has been steady," according to a Bloomberg report. He added that he anticipates "encouraging" demand from US consumers, though he did not provide detail as to why. Research firm IDC said it expects global PC shipments to drop 4.5 per cent during 2009.

In particular, Dell has high hopes for the Chinese PC market, where his company increased sales last year by 28 per cent. In terms of revenue, China is now Dell's second-largest market.

The world's second-largest PC maker, Dell also announced plans to sell 15 different computer models to rural Chinese farmers, a huge market that will soon be flush with government cash. China is poised to shower some 800 million farmers with 20bn yuan (£2bn) of subsidies enabling them to buy home appliances, which apparently includes PCs.

Dell's most recent quarterly earnings report reflected waning demand for consumer PCs and falling IT budgets at large enterprise companies hitting the entire industry, with revenue dropping 16 per cent to $13.4bn.

But that hasn't stopped Dell from introducing both a new luxury consumer laptop and a new enterprise suite of servers, workstations, and IT services in the past few weeks.

Original article: Dell: Global PC demand 'steady' from CNET News.com