The increasing popularity of tablet
computers and smartphones combined with the weak economy are making
life difficult for PC maker Dell.
The company said Tuesday that its profit in the second quarter
shrank 18 per cent to 732 million dollars, on revenue of 14.5 billion
dollars, which was lower than the second quarter last year by 7.5 per
cent.
Chief financial officer Brian Gladden said PC business is in a
challenging phase, with desktop computers as well as notebooks
selling worse than in the second quarter of 2011.
The company projected flat sales in the current third quarter and
lowered its profit projection by one-fifth.
Dell's share prices fell more than 4 per cent in after-hours
trading. Dell is among the PC manufacturers suffering most from the
shift to mobile devices.
At one time Dell was the second-largest maker of PCs behind
Hewlett-Packard and, according to market research company Gartner, is
now fourth behind H-P, Lenovo and Acer.
