This approach allowed them to offer competitive prices compared to retail brands, coupled with the convenience of pre-assembled units, making them one of the early success stories of this business model.

In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel, Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million (equivalent to $238,100,000 in 2023) in annual revenue.

Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and low profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997.

[35][36] By June 2021, the stock had reached an all-time high of over US$100 per share, reflecting the company's successful transition to a technology solutions provider that helps customers navigate digital transformation.

[35] CNET has suggested that Dell was getting trapped in the increasing commoditization of high volume low margin computers, which prevented it from offering more exciting devices that consumers demanded.

Dell's low spending on R&D relative to its revenue (compared to IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple Inc.)—which worked well in the commoditized PC market—prevented it from making inroads into more lucrative segments, such as MP3 players and later mobile devices.

[39] Dell's reputation for poor customer service, which was exacerbated as it moved call centers offshore and as its growth outstripped its technical support infrastructure, came under increasing scrutiny on the Web.

In July 2006, the company started its Direct2Dell blog, and then in February 2007, Michael Dell launched IdeaStorm.com, asking customers for advice including selling Linux computers and reducing the promotional "bloatware" on PCs.

By the fourth quarter of 2006, Dell lost its title of the largest PC manufacturer to Hewlett Packard whose Personal Systems Group was invigorated thanks to a restructuring initiated by their CEO Mark Hurd.

[56] On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report showing gross sales of $14.4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down 33%.

These plans were reversed, due to a high Canadian dollar that made the Ottawa staff relatively expensive, and also as part of Dell's turnaround, which involved moving these call-center jobs offshore to cut costs.

[5][62] Dell closed plants that produced desktop computers for the North American market, including the Mort Topfer Manufacturing Center in Austin, Texas (original location)[63][64] and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999) in 2008 and early 2009, respectively.

InfoWorld suggested that Dell and other OEMs saw tablets as a short-term, low-investment opportunity running Google Android, an approach that neglected user interface and failed to gain long term market traction with consumers.

[77] Dell attempted to offset its declining PC business, which still accounted for half of its revenue and generates steady cash flow,[78] by expanding into the enterprise market with servers, networking, software, and services.

[70][80] Despite spending $13 billion on acquisitions to diversify its portfolio beyond hardware,[81] the company was unable to convince the market that it could thrive or made the transformation in the post-PC world,[80] as it suffered continued declines in revenue and share price.

[86] After several weeks of rumors, which started around January 11, 2013, Dell announced on February 5, 2013, that it had struck a $24.4 billion (equivalent to $31,470,000,000 in 2023) leveraged buyout deal, that would have delisted its shares from the NASDAQ and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and taken it private.

[81] Analysts said that the biggest challenge facing Silver Lake would be to find an "exit strategy" to profit from its investment, which would be when the company would hold an IPO to go public again, and one warned "But even if you can get a $25bn enterprise value for Dell, it will take years to get out.

[100] On November 19, 2015, Dell, alongside Arm Holdings, Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing.

[101] On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire EMC Corporation in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $67 billion (equivalent to $84,210,000,000 in 2023), which has been considered the largest-ever acquisition in the technology sector.

"[116] The Register reported the view of William Blair & Company that the merger would "blow up the current IT chess board", forcing other IT infrastructure vendors to restructure to achieve scale and vertical integration.

[122] In July 2018, Dell announced intentions to become a publicly traded company again by paying $21.7 billion (equivalent to $25,940,000,000 in 2023) in both cash and stock to buy back shares from its stake in VMware, offering shareholders roughly 60 cents on the dollar as part of the deal.

[133] In 1998, Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEMs) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest".

[62] Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market formerly took place at Dell plants in Austin, Texas, (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee, (opened in 1999), which were closed in 2008 and early 2009, respectively.

[223] This raised such security risks as attackers impersonating HTTPS-protected websites such as Google and Bank of America and malware being signed with the certificate to bypass Microsoft software filtering.

To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone network, and to move its customer-care division to India and El Salvador.

[226] A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early 2000s featured the actor Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a lightly mischievous blond-haired youth who came to the assistance of bereft computer purchasers.

Since some shoppers in certain markets show reluctance to purchase technological products through the phone or the Internet, Dell has looked into opening retail operations in some countries in Central Europe and Russia.

In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with the office supply chain, Officeworks (part of Coles Group), to stock a few modified models in the Inspiron desktop and notebook range.

[241] Dell's major competitors include Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hasee, Acer, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Asus, MSI, Panasonic, Samsung and Apple.

[250] Dell was the first company to publicly state a timeline for the elimination of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which it planned to phase out by the end of 2009.