Dell Computer

For years, Dell has been one the world's leading PC brands, wooing customers through mail-order, telephone and the Internet. The company's direct sales strategy bypassed channel and inventory problems and helped maintain its low-cost edge over retail-dependent competitors for the last two decades.

Aside from PCs, the Round Rock, Texas-based company also sells non-PC technologies including storage systems, mobility products, enhanced services and software and peripherals.

Dell recently ended a long-standing exclusive relationship with Intel in May this year, when it adopted Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) chips in its servers. Other products that are now powered by AMD include desktops and notebooks.

According to IDC, Dell posted the strongest year-on-year growth among the top vendors in Asia-Pacific at 34.8 percent for the third quarter this year. The research firm's data also showed that the American PC maker is the region's third best-selling PC vendor for the third quarter of 2006, with a 9 percent market share.

However, Dell's worldwide ranking dropped to two--for the first time in almost three years--when its worldwide market share decreased to 16.1 percent in the third quarter this year, according to Gartner.