Dell is to PCs now as Mcdonald’s is to hamburgers. At one point in its history, it was the largest seller of PCs and network servers in the world. While not quite as large and successful today as during the computer and internet heyday of the late 90s and early 2000s, Dell’s presence and influence is still formidable. It was ranked the 25th largest company on the Fortune 500 in 2006.
Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. From his dorm room, his small one-man company, PC’s Limited, sold IBM PC compatible computers made from stock components. Dell’s business model rested on selling computers directly to the customer. It was an early pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing and selling PCs. From its humble beginnings, Dell went public in 1988 and eventually went on to sell its computers from the web in 1996. The new millennium saw Dell’s further expansion into consumer electronics such as digital music players and televisions.
Dell’s growth has not been without controversy however. A great deal of Dell’s customer service operations have been outsourced to India, much to the chagrin of some customers who have complained about a severe drop in service quality as a result.
