Dell remains "very committed" to selling personal computers, Chief Executive Michael Dell told CNBC Thursday.
Elise Amendola
**FILE** Dell laptops are seen in North Andover, Mass. in this March 1, 2007 file photo. Dell Inc. is expected to release quarterly earnings on Thursday, May 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, file)
"You can’t provide an end-to-end solution if it ends, and so you have to have the entire solution to be able to provide what customers are looking for," Michael Dell said. That makes PCs "certainly a big part of our business."
Unlike competitor Hewlett-Packard , where CEO Meg Whitman and the board are still debating whether to keep or spin off its legacy PC business, Michael Dell sees the PCs as part of his company's data center business. The more data a company takes in, the more need there is for Dell's data-management business, he said.
Dell has shifted its main focus to enterprise, rather than consumer, solutions and services, which puts less of an emphasis on making computer hardware. Michael Dell said the company profits even with the increasing use of smartphones and tablet computers over desktop computers and laptops.
"All these devices together are creating enormous amounts of data that have to be managed...This is an exciting time for IT," he said of information technology. "IT can provide incredible [return on investment] to help keep companies and organizations efficient."
Although Dell has made nine small technology company acquisitions this year, Michael Dell wouldn't comment on whether Dell could be a potential buyer of troubled BlackBerry maker Research in Motion .
He also said he wouldn't give HP any advice on whether to keep its PC business intact. However, he said, if HP did spin off the PC business it would be "an opportunity for us and we’ll be all over it."