Displaying items by tag: Dell

PC sales surged in the June quarter, driven by higher demand from workers and students forced to study and work from home amid the coronavirus, according to preliminary data from two industry-research firms.

Global PC shipments rose 11% to 72.3 million in the quarter, with the U.S. posting its highest quarterly-shipment volume in more than a decade, according to preliminary data from International Data Corp (IDC) and Gartner.

"The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the center of consumers' tech portfolio," said IDC Mobile Device Trackers research manager Jitesh Ubrani.

"What remains to be seen is if this demand and high level of usage continues during a recession and into the post-COVID world since budgets are shrinking while schools and workplaces reopen."

Both market trackers ranked HP and Lenovo as the top two PC makers, with Dell in third place. Apple, which doesn't use Microsoft's Windows operating system but is nevertheless grouped among PC makers, came in fourth.

Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa described the second-quarter figures as a short-term recovery, with some of the growth due to distributors and shops restocking supplies as they become available.

Early indicators suggest strong PC shipments for education, business, and consumer uses such as streaming entertainment, according to IDC's devices and displays research vice president Linn Huang.

"With inventory still back-ordered, this goodwill will continue into July," Huang said.

"However, as we head deeper into a global recession, the goodwill sentiment will increasingly sour."

According to the latest IDC (International Data Corporation) Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker May 2017, the overall India Traditional PC shipment for Q1 2017 stood at 2.16 million units (i.e. quarter on quarter growth of 12.5 percent over Q4 2016 and year on year growth of 8.5 percent over Q1 2016).

The overall consumer PC market registered a shipment of 1.05 million units in Q1 2017, with a healthy 14.5 percent growth from the same period last year and 19.4 percent quarter on quarter growth.

“Post demonetization reform, market observed an upbeat demand owing to an optimistic shift in discretionary spending from consumers in first quarter of 2017,” says Manish Yadav , Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

The overall commercial PC market recorded a shipment of 1.11 million units in Q1 2017. On the backdrop of seasonality, execution of state-owned manifesto deals and increase spending from BFSI vertical, Q1 2017 observed a quarter on quarter growth of 6.7 percent and 3.3 percent year on year over Q1 2016.

“Commercial spending remained optimistic about the economic scenario and the potential for growth, despite uncertainty surrounding the stability of global economy,” says Sanjeev Sharma , Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

“IDC India anticipates a short-term postponement and resistance by traders during GST implementation phase. But in the long run owing to this structured tax regime the effect will get neutralized and will propel growth owing to festive season,” adds Yadav.

With focus, around enriching gaming as potential segment in consumer business, OEMs are looking to revamp their product portfolio and upsell in mid to premium range. On the other hand, commercial business is expected to grow over the next few quarters driven by state owned education projects.

Top 3 Vendor Highlights:

HP Inc. led the market with a 29.5% share of the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017. In addition to their success in the consumer segment, HP Inc. picked up some key wins and executed a few state-owned education projects along with fulfillment of projects in the banking and financial sector. This has led to a 5.8% growth quarter on quarter in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017.

Dell took the second spot with 22.5 percent market share in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017. The vendor continues to drive new initiatives and programs to provide seamless experience of learning for students through technology. Owing to such initiatives the vendor grew by 19.9 percent quarter on quarter in overall traditional consumer PC market in Q1 2017. Simultaneously the Dell EMC merger has provided the vendor an extra space for customer expansion, which could prove to be beneficial in the near future as well.

Lenovo held on to the third spot, with a 17.7 percent market share in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017 and recorded a quarter on quarter growth of 15.1 percent, owing to the complete execution of manifesto project. The vendor also grew by 16.9 percent quarter on quarter in the overall consumer market owing to the efforts observed in improving the after sales support with different initiatives using not just the traditional way, but also social media and other new age technologies.

Recent preliminary results from Gartner, Inc. shows that worldwide PC (personal computer) shipments totaled 72.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.7 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. In total, for the year 2016, PC shipments totaled 269.7 million units, a 6.2 percent decline from 2015. The significance of PCs is diminishing as the smartphone trend and popularity of connected devices takes center stage. PC shipments have declined annually since 2012, while mobile broadband subscriptions have been growing by around 25 percent annually, increasing by approximately 190 million in Q3 2016 alone, Ericsson reports.

Mobile subscriptions are growing at around three percent year on year globally and reached 7.5 billion in 2016, according to Ericsson’s recent Mobility Report. The increased efficiency of smartphones is outweighing traditional PCs, making them less necessary to own. While Lenovo holds the position as the world’s biggest PC and laptop maker, it cannot hide from the fact that globally, PC sales in 2016 were down by 6.2 percent. Meanwhile, the number of mobile subscriptions exceeds the population in many countries, according to Ericsson.

"Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive real market growth. There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs. However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth."

Ms. Kitagawa continued: "There is the other side of the PC market, where PCs are infrequently used. Consumers in this segment have high dependency on smartphones, so they stretch PC life cycles longer. This side of the market is much bigger than the PC enthusiast segment; thus, steep declines in the infrequent PC user market offset the fast growth of the PC enthusiast market."

In Ericsson’s Mobility Report, it says greater device affordability is encouraging new mobile subscribers in developing regions, while growth in mature markets is largely due to individuals adding more devices; meanwhile, PC sales are declining. What’s more, with 5G on the horizon, smartphones will be able to cater to even higher demands of service. The introduction of 5G, according to Ericsson, will accelerate transformation in many industry verticals, enabling new use cases in areas such as automation, IoT and big data.

Smartphones are becoming more dominant than PCs, but Ms. Kitagawa indicates that there is still hope for the PC market. Although the overall PC market will see stagnation, there are growth opportunities within the market such as the engaged PC user market, the business market and gaming. However, these growth areas will not prevent the overall decline of the PC market, at least in the next year, she says.

Four of the top six PC vendors experienced an increase in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to Gartner’s research. The top three vendors all increased their global market share in the fourth quarter. Lenovo maintained the number one position, as the company experienced shipment increases in North America and EMEA, while Asia/Pacific and Japan continued to be challenging markets.

In addition, HP remained in the second position and it has recorded three consecutive quarters of shipment growth. HP secured the top position in PC shipments in the US and EMEA, growing faster than the regional averages.

Dell also registered three consecutive quarters of shipment growth in Q4 2016. Dell continued to place PCs as a strategic business segment in commercial and consumer markets during 2016. Asus suffered the steepest decline among the top six vendors in the fourth quarter of 2016. The company has been shifting its PC strategy more toward the high-end market, which will allow it to maintain better profit margins. Gartner analysts said the falling shipment volume could be the cause of this strategy shift.

According to Ericsson’s Mobility Report, North America saw 405 million mobile subscriptions in 2016. Subscriptions associated with smartphones continue to increase, the report says, and have surpassed those for basic mobile phones. Fifty-five percent of all subscriptions are now for smartphones and, in Q3 2016, smartphones accounted for close to 80 percent of all mobile phones sold. In comparison, Gartner’s research says PC shipments in the US totaled just 16.5 million units in Q4 2016, a 1.3 percent decline from Q4 2016.

Five of the top six vendors in the US PC market experienced a shipment increase in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to Gartner. However, this was offset by a 20.9 percent decline in the ‘Others’ category, and a 48.3 percent decline in shipments by Asus.

"Similar to low-key back to school sales in 3Q16, big sales events, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday sales are no longer effective marketing opportunities for PCs since PC purchases are generally driven by a 'need,' rather than 'want,' motivation," Ms. Kitagawa said. "PCs are not a preferred gift item any longer, as consumers gravitate toward other consumer electronics, such as virtual personal assistant (VPA) speakers, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted devices and wearables. Vendors and channels did not have high expectations for the holiday PC sales, so the marketing campaigns remained relatively quiet."

The consumer items that Ms. Kitagawa refers to – such as virtual reality headwear and wearables – fall under the IoT (internet of things) umbrella. Ericsson predicts that the number of projected IoT devices will reach 1.5 billion in 2022. This growth, according to the report, is due to increased industry focus and 3GPP standardization of cellular IoT technologies.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa saw a decline in PC shipments in 2016. PC shipments in EMEA surpassed 21.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.4 percent decline year over year, according to Gartner. PC shipments to the consumer market were driven by good Black Friday sales in Western European countries, such as the UK and France, especially on traditional notebooks, ultramobile clamshells, the hybrid form factor and gaming PCs. Gartner's early estimates also show PC shipment growth in the business segment, led by Windows 10 deployments during the fourth quarter.

In addition, the Asia/Pacific PC market totaled 24.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.9 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. The PC market was affected by two major events. First, the demonetization of the Indian currency in India led to weaker-than-expected consumer PC demand. Second, the success of China's 11.11 (Singles Day on 11 November) online shopping event gave a boost to consumer notebook sales.

Ultimately, growth in the number of connected devices is driven by emerging applications and business models, and supported by standardization and falling device costs, Ericsson reports. The traditional PC market is being swamped by the growing needs consumers have for mobility and convenience, which can be provided by smartphones and other connected devices under the umbrella of IoT.

Dell Technologies announced on September 7 the completion of the acquisition of EMC Corporation, creating a unique family of businesses that provides the essential infrastructure for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important asset: information.

This combination creates a $74 billion market leader with an expansive technology portfolio that solves complex problems for customers in the industry’s fast-growing areas of hybrid cloud, software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, platform-as-a-service, data analytics, mobility and cybersecurity.

Dell Technologies serves 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and comprises several market leading businesses. The two largest, and most well-known, are the Dell client solutions business and the Dell EMC infrastructure solutions business – both of which are supported by Dell EMC Services. In addition, Dell Technologies contains Boomi, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware. This unique structure combines the focus and innovation of a startup with the global scale and service of a large enterprise.

Dell Technologies’ scale will enable it to deliver more innovation and investment in R&D, sales and marketing, services and support and deliver more efficient and cost-effective solutions for customers. Furthermore, while the company will publically report its financial results, it is privately controlled, enabling it to better focus investments on its customer and partner ecosystem over the long term.  

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, said: "We are at the dawn of the next industrial revolution. Our world is becoming more intelligent and more connected by the minute, and ultimately will become intertwined with a vast Internet of Things, paving the way for our customers to do incredible things. This is why we created Dell Technologies. We have the products, services, talent and global scale to be a catalyst for change and guide customers, large and small, on their digital journey."

Dell Technologies blends Dell’s go-to-market strength with small business and mid-market customers and EMC’s strength with large enterprises and stands as a market leader in many of the most important and high-growth areas of the $2 trillion information technology market, including positions as a “Leader” in 20 Gartner Magic Quadrants and a portfolio of more than 20,000 patents and applications. 

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase, commented: “Financial services is one of the first-movers in embracing technology to better serve our customers, and the next wave of digitalization continues a trend that’s been occurring  my whole lifetime. As one of the world’s biggest users of Dell and EMC, we spend approximately $9 billion a year on technology, including infrastructure as well as cloud computing, big data analytics and cybersecurity. We make sure we spend wisely and select our partners very carefully. I’ve known Michael Dell for 30 years. He’s top notch, ethical, and deeply cares about everyone he works with – both internally at his company and across the industry. I'm thrilled for Michael and the new company, and we are eager to see everything they create in the future.” 

The gap between telecoms and IT is shrinking rapidly as the two industries merge to form a new age of smart and efficient communication as defined by the Internet of Things. As an end-to-end IT supplier, Dell’s role in telecoms is thus increasing. Dell OEM telecommunications executives, Erwin Meyer, General Manager, OEM Solutions (Telecommunications), Asia Pacific & Japan and David Lin, Business Development Director, OEM Solutions (Telecommunications) recently sat with Active Telecoms in Singapore to discuss Open NFV and Dell’s role in telecoms: the convergence of telecoms and IT.

Dell OEM serves original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that resell Dell hardware and services as part of their own branded products. Dell supports nearly 4,000 OEM customers around the world in distinct industry verticals.  As an IT company, there are huge opportunities for Dell in the telecommunications industry, especially for Open NFV (Network Function Virtualization), with companies moving their network functions over cloud computing. This has created a major opportunity for Dell.

“We have been trying to penetrate the telecommunications industry,” said Mr. Lin. Erwin Meyer, who was once part of the Dell leadership team that established a global sales segment in Asia, highlighted the close link between telecoms and IT and Dell’s role to play. “Increasingly we are seeing that convergence,” he said. “If you are looking at a data center focusing on your network and your storage, etc, Dell is a market leader in all those areas, so many of Dell’s customers include CSPs, carriers, ISVs and SIs.

“You may not always see Dell as one of their solutions. What we are doing in the OEM team is taking customer IP and bundling that with the solutions of Dell,” Meyer added. “In many situations we re-brand the solutions. We take off the Dell logo. We are an infrastructure partner for many companies.”

Dell’s ‘Open Strategy’

Mr. Lin went on to discuss where the telecom industry is in developing standards and promoting interoperability for Network Function Virtualization. He said the whole industry started with EG, ESP, ESI and NFV – great solutions to drive the cost down moving network functions over the cloud, which presented an opportunity for Dell.

“Dell’s strategy in recent years has become very open, supporting all software vendors to build the ecosystem,” said Lin. “Our strategy is supporting openness by working with partners. Interoperability is a big thing for us to make sure that solutions are working with our customers in the telecommunications industry; the service providers, the carriers, and so on. We have been participating in many standard bodies to provide support for our partners.”

For example, Lin mentioned that Dell operates labs to offer support for Open NFV, one in China supporting Open NFV and another in the United States supporting Open NFV testing. “In a nutshell, we are open and supportive,” said Lin.  

Meyer said Dell makes “a real effort” to be a part of industry bodies. The company has a seat in the Telecom Industry Association in the United States sitting on the board to drive the standards fairly hard because “we believe that’s going to be the focus for the industry,” said Meyer.

“It is also interesting to notice that in the last few years, NFV has been in a proof of concept phase,” he added. “This is the year that is marking the fact that a lot of those POCs are going into production environments. Right now Dell is deploying the largest NFV implementation globally, together with Verizon and RedHat in the U.S. We are deploying the solution in five data centers and taking the deployment internationally.”

Discussing how NFV helps telcos address pain points of traditional networking, Lin and Meyer said NFV “came from pain points itself. OTTs were making a significant part of revenue. They saw this as an opportunity to start using an adjacent model.” For Dell, and for the industry itself, NFV is the platform or a solution to be able to provide service providers with agile, programmable solutions for infrastructure where they can launch services on demand and make the network more flexible.

So what are some of the opportunities for successful interoperability of multi-vendor NFV systems? In terms of Dell in the space of NFV, the company is not a believer of a totally integrated solution. Dell backs the idea of horizontally de-segregated solutions whereby it wants to be providing the infrastructure.

“We are talking about an end to an IT play and the convergence of the IT and telecom sectors coming together. We see ourselves as a true IT-capable vendor who can provide global-scale solutions for any large operators, while backing all the ISPs or network providers and software vendors to bring their solutions into the market more rapidly,” said the executives. Lin said this adds to how Dell supports open source or open architecture which means it can bring the best value to customers who are industry service providers in the telecommunications industry.

“The whole purpose of Open NFV is to decouple the hardware and the software and virtualize the network functions; and by doing that, to provide low cost solutions for the service provider via the network and also to provide agility to deploy very fast services for their customers,” said Lin. “This obviously starts with the service provider, and then Dell is committed to working with our partners to make the ecosystem completely supporting the open source architecture and deliver the best balance for our customers in this industry.”

Mr. Arul Dharmalingham, NFV Practice Lead, OEM Solutions, Dell, Asia Pacific, offered his insights, saying: “The challenge is that NFV is looked at as an open source technology. The vendors won’t have open standards which are not tied to any provider systems. This also opens up a comparison model whereby, if I had an integrated system, I could pull out of the box and get things going on day zero, while with open source, what’s my support?

“We have to bring that level of performance that is available today in the market with open source technologies as well as saying that this segregated approach gives the flexibility of making sure you have a platform that can adapt to emerging standards, not just for one or two technologies,” said Mr. Dharmalingham. “We need to have a strong ecosystem of partners to be able to provide solutions and support. That’s where Dell comes into play. It’s about establishing a desegregated partner ecosystem with the right partners for the right solutions.”

Open Source MANO

Mr. Lin expanded on whether Dell's POV Open Source MANO (OSM) Community, which is being implemented in Europe, is feasible in the APJ region. Open Source MANO is an ETSI-hosted project to develop an Open Source NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) software stack aligned with ETSI NFV. Lin said Open MANO is new and Dell is not a member, but the company is participating.

“To have an Open Source MANO as the standard will enable benefits for the service providers there,” said Lin. “In Europe, we can see that there are some service providers from Asia Pacific following suit. For example, SKT is already in there. Moving forward, I will be expecting to see more service providers from the APJ region join. If there’s a standard body providing solutions for the telecommunication industry, Dell is fully committed to supporting that because it would bring value to our customers.”

For some standards today in research, Lin said it seems like new technology today in APJ is slightly lagging behind compared to other regions. But he can see that some service providers are taking the initiative to try new technology. “We can see that China Mobile has an Open NFV lab in Singapore which is the only one in Asia supporting testing of Open NFV,” said Lin. “They are very advanced in technology for this industry. We also see in Japan that NTT are already starting an NFV network.”

Lin hopes to see APJ standing at the forefront of new technology. The Dell team in APJ is fully committed to this, working with partners and customers together to drive new technologies for the industry that will eventually benefit the whole APJ population because they are the users of those services.

“There is a lot we are seeing here in the region. There’s a lot of inflation going on,” said Meyer. “We have a number of customers that are asking us to build servers specifically to their own specifications. There are a number of servers we have built specifically for the telecom industry of a very high density. Our customers are really looking to us for use cases and how we can help them build additional revenue streams.”

Microsoft’s free Windows 10 update is scheduled to release in less than two weeks, and to encourage users to update their computers, Microsoft is offering a seemingly exciting deal. Microsoft users can expect to receive a free Inspiron 15 laptop from Dell if they are unable to update their computer to Windows 10 with same-day service. But like all deals, there’s a catch.

To be eligible for the prize, your PC has to be compatible with Windows 10 in the first place. Those with a computer that isn’t compatible can earn $150 to the purchase of a new PC. However, not all retail stores are participating in the service so it pays to check. Plus, all PCs must be turned over to the company by noon on the day the service is to be performed.

There are also limits to what Microsoft will accept in the form of an incompatible PC. Those who are keen to claim $150 to purchase a new Dell laptop should be advised that there are additional caveats in Microsoft’s fine print:

“To be eligible for trade-in, you must own the qualifying device, device must power on, battery must hold charge and not be required to be plugged in to operate, and be in fully functional, working condition without broken/missing components, cracked display/housing, liquid damage, modification(s) or have device warranty seal broken to be considered working. Cannot be password protected, and include original chargers/accessories. Must contain hard drive.”

As if that’s not enough to dampen your excitement, there’s more. A report by Extreme Tech says the only Windows 8 laptops that wouldn’t qualify for Windows 10 would be old Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 designs that “didn’t implement the CMPXCHG16B instruction, which performed an atomic compare-and-exchange between 16-byte values.” Systems that don’t have this instruction would have failed a Windows 8.1 upgrade with a message saying “You can’t install Windows 8.1 because your processor doesn’t support CompareExchange128.”

Very few systems of the era were built because AMD had a small share of the market and few were built. Some older Intel Core 2 motherboards also didn’t support CMPXCHG16B either (CPUs at the time supported it, but motherboards didn’t). These systems would predate Windows 8 by several years.

Microsoft finally offers a $20 discount on Office 365, which “doesn’t make Office 365 any less of a terrible deal compared to buying a copy of Office in the vast majority of circumstances,” says the Extreme Tech report. There’s also a reported opportunity at some stores to win an Xbox One, but that would depend on the particular store.

It’s unclear as to whether Microsoft’s offer is eligible for just laptops, or for desktops too. Microsoft’s eligibility text refers to “PCs” but the fine print says the battery must hold a charge and the system cannot require a wall plug to operate, implying that only mobile systems can be considered.

Dell just announced at CommunicAsia the launch of its first purpose-built industrial PC (IPC) products, Embedded Box PC 3000 Series and 5000 Series, aimed at taking the embedded PC market mainstream. Available this summer, the products are fanless, ruggedized and built to provide customers fast time to market.

Chet Hullum, general manager of Industrial Solutions at Intel, said: “The Dell Embedded Box 3000 and 5000 Series Embedded Box PCs based on the 6th gen Intel Core Processor family and Intel Atom processor E3800 product family are designed to bridge the data needs of traditional operational technology with the manageability demands of information technology. The result is a solution that meets the needs of industrial and IoT customers.”

With a long history of rugged engineering innovation and extensive experience in OEM Solutions, the products expand Dell’s Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio. Dell will bring the benefits of short lead times, enterprise-class lifecycle, stability, service and support to customers who may be underserved by current embedded solutions.

Mark Taylor, president, OEM Computing Solutions, Arrow Electronics, said: “Dell’s technology strength and commitment to excellence matches our vision for the OEM and independent software vendor (ISV) marketplaces incredibly well. We are delighted to work with Dell and look forward to continued growth together.”

Embedded computing is now everywhere. According to a Technavio study, the embedded systems market was valued at more than $11 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $23.10 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 15 percent. Organic growth is being fuelled by falling component costs, improved power efficiencies, increasing business ROI needs and demand from the IoT.

However, the reality of long lead times, low device reliability, limited scalability, lack of security and manageability options and limited support hinder the development of the market. “Customers have consistently told us that current embedded solutions do not meet the level of cost-effective sophistication, scale and support they need for these to be a critical, reliable component of their operations,” said Ricky Chan, Sales Engineering Director, Dell OEM, Asia-Pacific and Japan.

“Along with our new embedded products that can be ordered in quantities from one to thousands, Dell will bring our established business heritage to this new market: global scale, end-to-end IT and OT security portfolio, strong customization and award-winning service and support.”

"Security and reliability are of the utmost importance to embedded PC customers," said Jon Melamut, VP of Commercial Devices Operations at Canonical Ltd.  "We are very excited to partner with Dell as they launch the Dell Embedded Box PC 3000 Series and 5000 Series with Ubuntu Desktop, which provides software security and reliability to match that of Dell's hardware.”

Product Highlights: 

Dell’s Embedded Box PCs are fanless, important as the fan is the often most common component failure in embedded use cases, and also ideal for environments that require little noise. They are highly reliable devices that can be used “headless” or with keyboard, mouse and monitor. Flexible and powerful, with extensive wired and wireless input/output (I/O) options, they run on Intel processors. The 3000 Series is powered by Intel Atom processors and designed for space-constrained applications, such as retail kiosks, automated vending devices and vehicles.

The 5000 Series is optimized for performance and I/O scalability. Powered by Intel Core processors, it includes two PCI/PCIe card slots for adaptability. It provides high-bandwidth ideal for industrial PC and IoT use cases (multi-HD video streaming apps and high frequency sensor data sources) as well as manufacturing and automation control.

Other features:

• Operating temperature range from 0°C to 50°C
• Designed to MIL-STD 810G specifications
• DIN-rail, VESA, or wall mount options
• 5-year lifecycle and OEM-ready options
• Global availability with Dell Support and Deployment services
• Microsoft Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 Embedded, Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB and Ubuntu Desktop operating systems

Customers can take advantage of Dell’s global availability, trusted security and manageability options, and Dell Support and Deployment services including ProSupport which provides up to five years of end-to-end hardware support for the entire IoT product lifecycle, helping customers maximize their environment and minimize time spent on maintenance.

NTT DATA, Inc. and Dell Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement for NTT DATA to acquire Dell Services, an IT services provider recognized for its depth in vertical industries and for its offerings around infrastructure services, cloud services, application services, and business process outsourcing. The agreement reflects NTT DATA’s continued focus on expanding its brand and leadership position globally.

“NTT DATA is pleased with the unique opportunity to acquire such high-caliber talent, and a corporate culture that shares common values with NTT DATA, with emphasis on ‘Clients First,’ ‘Foresight,’ ‘Teamwork,’ and a commitment to innovation,” stated Toshio Iwamoto, President and CEO of NTT DATA Corporation. “Welcoming Dell Services to NTT DATA is expected to strengthen our leadership position in the IT Services market and initiates an important business relationship with Dell.”

Through this transaction NTT DATA and Dell Services clients will have access to the expanded capabilities and industry offerings of the combined organization, delivering upon a consistent theme that is inherent to the NTT DATA brand: placing clients’ needs first, fostering innovation, and driving accelerated results through its global reach and cost-efficient solutions.

“I’m extremely proud of Dell Services’ solid growth, broad capabilities and deep domain expertise in Healthcare & Life Sciences, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance. Our investments in digital services, application modernization, tools, automation and ’as-a-service‘ models, have enabled Dell Services customers to simplify their IT environment, empower their workforce, engage their customers and grow,” said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Inc. “Together, NTT DATA and Dell Services will be a winning combination for Dell Services customers, team members and partners.”

When the transaction is completed, clients and employees of Dell Services and NTT DATA will also benefit from:

• A significant expansion of BPO capabilities, particularly in healthcare and insurance industries.

• Increased infrastructure platform, with the Dell Services data centers in the U.S., U.K., and Australia joining NTT’s 230 data centers around the globe.

• Expanded technology resources to provide next-generation application and business process services to help clients leverage IT to drive business performance and outcomes.

John McCain, CEO of NTT DATA, Inc., led this transaction and will have overall responsibility for leading the combined business.

“There are few acquisition targets in our market that provide this type of unique opportunity to increase our competitiveness and the depth of our market offerings,” said Mr. McCain. “Dell Services is a very well-run business and we believe its employee base, long-standing client relationships, and the mix of long term and project-based work will enhance our portfolio. We are confident this transaction will be positive for clients, employees, and shareholders, and will advance our collective vision to be an innovative partner for our clients.”

Dell Services will continue to operate under the leadership of Suresh Vaswani, president of Dell Services, reporting to Michael Dell, until the transaction closes.

“I’m proud of the job the Services leadership team has done in driving and modernizing the business, achieving industry-leading customer satisfaction scores, and winning marquee deals with global companies across industries,” said Suresh Vaswani, president of Dell Services. “This acquisition will create even more value for customers and will benefit employees as they become part of a top ten global IT services business.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Wells Fargo Securities acted as lead financial advisor to NTT DATA, Inc. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC also acted as financial advisors to NTT DATA, Inc. Citigroup acted as lead financial advisor to Dell Inc.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone is expected to offer more than 400 billion yen ($3.52 billion) to buy Dell's IT services business in a move aimed at bolstering the Japanese company's presence abroad, according to Japan’s Nikkei.

Dell paid 3.9 billion for the Company but is raising funds for its EMC acquisition so the sale is  a plus for them.

NTT seeks to acquire the business, which consists mainly of Perot Systems and generates around $3 billion in annual revenue, through subsidiary NTT Data. NTT Data President Toshio Iwamoto will formally present an offer to Dell executives in the U.S. this week. NTT Data is expected to enter into exclusive negotiations on the purchase.

Parent company NTT will help finance this bid for overseas growth. While the purchase price may change before a deal is concluded, the acquisition appears likely to go down as the group's third-largest ever.

Founded by Ross Perot, who later ran for U.S. president, Perot Systems was bought by Dell in 2009. It designs, operates and administers information technology systems for customers including medical institutions and local governments, with particular strength in health care. NTT envisions building out from this business into financial technology, the Internet of Things, and other areas poised for growth, drawing on its own strengths.

Dell seeks to sell off this noncore business to raise cash for a roughly $67 billion acquisition of data storage provider EMC. The U.S. manufacturer of personal computers is shifting its focus to servers, data centers and other IT infrastructure.

NTT seeks a stronger footing in the U.S. IT services market from which to catch up with such front-runners as IBM and Accenture.

Japan's former telephone monopoly earned just 14% of its revenue overseas last fiscal year. With demographic decline and other factors limiting the prospect of growth at home, the group has little choice but to expand abroad. It aims to raise overseas revenue by half to $22 billion by the year ending March 2018.

Other Japanese telecom companies face a similar challenge. SoftBank Group bought U.S. wireless carrier Sprint in 2013, while KDDI has entered mobile phone markets in Mongolia and Myanmar.