Dell income soars 29%

DELL INC, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, said second-quarter net income rose 29% as it bolstered sales of servers and printers and expanded outside the US.

Net income was $799 million, or 31 cents a share.

This figure was from $621 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement issued yesterday.

Sales rose by 20% to $11.7 billion.

The results met chief executive Kevin Rollins’s forecast made last month.

The higher revenue and profit indicates the strategy which was the brainchild of Rollins, 51, and founder Michael Dell is paying off.

Dell expanded beyond cut-price PCs to servers, printers and overseas markets, challenging Hewlett-Packard Co. in worldwide markets.

Dell’s PC market share grew to 18% in the quarter ended June 30, while Dell's shipments gained 23% to 7.26 million units in the quarter.

Dell’s second-quarter server shipments rose 29%.

Dell is increasing its share of the server market by offering lower prices than Hewlett-Packard and International Business Machines Corp, a strategy which the company used to become No.1 in the PC market.