Dell’s uneven turnaround may be smoothing out. After three up-and-down quarters of job cuts, product overhauls, and a costly retail blitz, Chief Executive Michael Dell is predicting a strong second half of 2008.

The Dell founder told BusinessWeek in an interview that growth rates for July through December could match or exceed growth in the company’s fiscal first quarter, which ended on May 2. Consumer business sales for the quarter rose 20 percent and unit growth hit 47 percent, outpacing the rest of the PC industry. “We’ve kind of reignited the thing,” says Dell. “You’ll see the growth rate be every bit of that in the second half of the year, whether not more. We’re going to have a big second half.”

Before Dell reclaimed the reins as CEO a year and a half ago, the PC maker suffered nearly two years of declining market share, falling profits, and slower growth. Although the executive, who founded the company in 1984, has made strides toward a turnaround,

results in recent quarters have been choppy. Expectations that the rough patch may be ending resurfaced in May, however, when Dell said first-quarter profit rose nearly 4 percent, and sales climbed 9 percent, to $16.08 billion. Dell has cut jobs, redesigned products to capture share in the fast-growing consumer market, and moved computers onto the shelves of 13,000 retail stores, lessening dependence on a long-standing direct-sales approach.

Beyond Commodity PCs

Now the company is looking for new ways to expand beyond selling commodity PCs, notebooks, and servers. It’s stepped up the pace of acquisitions, making eight since 2007, compared with half that in the company’s first 22 years. Its founder says Dell plus is gearing up to expand its services business. And PCs are selling overseas at a blistering pace: First-quarter revenue in Brazil, Russia, India, and China…

Original post by Mike

iPhone megapixels canon USB keyboards devices gadget keyboard iPod youtube