"In a question-and-answer session during Dell's annual shareholder meeting, Chairman [Michael] Dell was asked how he viewed competition from Apple," Edward F. Moltzen reports for CRN.

Dell answered, in part:
Apple certainly has done a very nice job with their products. I think you're going to see a number of new, competitive dynamics in that market ...music services. We've been working with MTV, which has a new service called Urge. That's an exciting space that Apple has done well in, but I would be surprised if they are able to maintain the share they have today over the next ten or 20 years. In terms of competition with Apple (in PCs), our share numbers speak for themselves. Apple is growing, but is still not in the top five in share for computers.

MacDailyNews Take: What, no mention of shutting down Apple from the "business genius" Michael Dell? The writing on the wall is sometimes hard to take, especially when it's so clearly written. Working with MTV on Urge? Entirely laughable. Please see related article: Dell dumps line of hard drive-based MP3 players, nobody notices for over a month - February 06, 2006.

Dell said, "Apple is growing, but is still not in the top five in share for computers." "Still" would be the operative word. Worldwide, box assembler Dell is correct: Apple is outside the top 5 PC vendors (for now). In the U.S., however, which represents more than half of Dell's business, according to IDC, Apple is #4 and showed 16% year-over-year growth overall with 60% growth in portables; the most rapidly growing segment of personal computers. Dell showed on 6.4% growth. Apple's market value - often seen as a measure of a company's future - is now more than $6.1 billion over Dell's. Most people can see that Dell is in decline. Can Michael Dell see it, yet?

Here's another article that may be of interest: Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! - April 05, 2006

Pure Dell. How appropriate: Dell is pure ----. If Dell ceased to exist today - say Michael Dell sold the company and gave the money back to the shareholders - nobody outside the company would care. Another Windows box assembler would simply slide into place and the mediocrity would continue unabated.