Dell earnings fall as consumer sales splutter

Feb 22, 2012, 6:08 GMT

San Francisco - Computer maker Dell reported an 18-per-cent drop in fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday as consumer sales continued to show weakness.

The Texas-based company said it earned 764 million dollars in the quarter, down from 927 million dollars in the year-ago period, as revenue increased 2.2 per cent to 16.03 billion dollars.

While consumer revenue dropped 2 per cent as customers continued to ditch PC's in favour of iPads and other tablet computers, Dell did perform well in Asia-Pacific and Japan, where sales grew 10 per cent, including a 15-per-cent surge in China.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa saw an 8-per-cent increase in sales, while sales in the Americas dropped 3 per cent.

According to research firm Gartner, Dell is the number three computer maker in the world behind HP and Lenovo. If Apple's iPads were counted as PCs, Apple would be the world's largest computer maker.