Dell Sheds Light on Turnaround Plan

SAN FRANCISCO -- Small businesses and international consumers are at the heart of Dell'sDELL plan to revitalize itself.

The Round Rock, Texas, PC company, which made its name selling computers directly to large corporations, is rewriting its game plan as it looks for ways to compete in a changing market.

"What we're starting to see emerge is a bit of a different focus," founder Michael Dell said about his company at an event in San Francisco to release a new low-cost storage product for small and medium-sized businesses.

"We're pointing the company into new areas and making a number of longer-term investments," Dell said.

The comments are among the few nuggets of information that Dell has publicly provided that shed light on its turnaround plan. Since Michael Dell reclaimed the CEO post earlier this year, the company has provided little guidance to Wall Street about its strategy and direction, due in large part to an accounting investigation that has precluded Dell from hosting quarterly conference calls with analysts.

In the past year, Dell has suffered a number of setbacks -- from the accounting investigation to product quality problems -- and lost its spot as the world's No.1 PC maker to Hewlett-PackardHPQ.

In its most-recently-ended quarter, Dell said, sales increased 5% year-over-year to $14.8 billion, while net income jumped 46% to $733 million.