Which is the most influential PC company in the world?
Some would argue it's Apple, for its software and hardware designs. Others might credit IBM, for bringing PCs to the workplace and for coining many of the key ideas of notebook design.
Personally, I vote for Dell.
Critics, no doubt, are already groaning. Dell doesn't generate much new technology. In fact, the company has only received 867 US patents in nearly two decades -- far fewer than many of its competitors get per year. (Dell has 562 more patent applications pending.) Some will point out that the Round Rock, Texas-based manufacturer rarely veers from the standard Microsoft-Intel line. Its "creative" computers -- like the WebPC -- live short, undistinguished lives.
Nonetheless, no other company has done more to change the landscape of the hardware industry. Compaq, the dominant PC company for most of the '90s, ventured into an ungainly merger with Digital in 1998 to try to ward off Dell. Subsequently, Compaq got bought by Hewlett-Packard.
Now, the postmerger Hewlett-Packard seems to be listing a bit. In its most recent quarter, it cut prices steeply in a bid to gain market share. But HP's PC group lost money, and Dell still continued to gain market share faster.
Put another way: PCs from Dell cost more than those from HP (sometimes as much as $250 more for equally configured machines, according to one HP representative), but the world gravitated toward Dell anyway.
Sun Microsystems has felt a cold wind coming from Dell, too. Before 1997, its workstations were the domain of Unix/RISC manufacturers. Dell is now No. 1 in workstations. In servers -- Sun's specialty -- Dell is in only fourth place, but is growing faster: Dell's server revenue grew 23 percent in the first quarter this year, according to research firm Gartner, while the industry contracted 1 percent.
Supercomputers have historically been the preserve of only the most technically sophisticated companies. But the increased popularity of clustering has made it possible for ordinary server makers, including Dell, to compete for big lab and university contracts. Dell, according to its own figures, sold more high-performance clusters in the first quarter this year than any other company.
