戴尔困局

    戴尔还通过努力推进高端XPS系列笔记本来弥补其低端笔记本业务的下滑。今年年底，微软公司将要推出Windows 8，可能也会刺激对新型个人电脑和笔记本的需求，尤其是希望升级换代、采用新版操作软件的公司客户。

    戴尔公司还重点开发了企业和政府客户，以此来弥补个人电脑销售额的下跌。企业和政府销售额占到总额的80%。戴尔在大公司销售方面取得了成功。个人消费者销售额占总收入的比例从两年前的23%下降到了19%，而大公司销售额的比例从两年前的27%上升到了30%。大公司销售的利润更高，营业利润可达销售额的10%，而消费者销售营业利润只有2.7%。

    因此，戴尔公司的总收益在过去数年内增长了17%。同期营业利润也从4.1%上升至7.1%。而戴尔公司股票的市盈率仍然仅为7.7，仅为标准普尔500市盈率14.8的一半。

    因此，戴尔未来仍然面临挑战，投资者们依然不敢对戴尔前景过于乐观。其中一个原因是，中国公司开始在低端服务器领域展开有力竞争，而这正是戴尔的增长领域。同时，支持高端笔记本的英特尔（Intel）Ivy Bridge芯片又将推迟发布时间。

    尽管杰富瑞投行（Jefferies & Co.）分析师皮特•米塞克表示，把业绩不佳归咎于泰国洪灾的说法实际上是“掩饰需求减缓趋势的障眼法”，比如iPad人气日益高涨带来的影响。但去年的洪灾确实严重影响了硬盘驱动器的供应。Windows 8在平板电脑上的运行能力进一步推高了个人电脑的售价，甚至个人电脑所用的配件价格也在缓步走高。

    这些忧虑最近几周对戴尔的股票构成了压力，导致其股价从2月份的高点下跌了10%。戴尔的转型用了近五年的时间才刚刚开始赢得投资者的初步支持。它至少还需要几个月时间来顺利度过仍属于公司核心的个人电脑业务难关。如果戴尔能经受住考验，它的二次出击可能会相当强劲。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    The company also managed to offset declines in its lower end laptops by pushing harder on its higher-end XPS line of notebooks. And the arrival of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 8 later this year will likely trigger a demand for new PCs and laptops, especially as companies upgrade to new the operating software.

    Dell has also fought off a decline in consumer sales by focusing on businesses and governments, which make up 80% of its sales. Dell has had success in selling to big companies. Sales to consumers fell to 19% of its total revenue last year from 23% two years ago. But sales to big companies rose to 30% of total revenue from 27% in the same period. Those big-company sales lead to higher margins: Operating profit in that segment were equal to 10% of its sales, while the operating profit from the consumer segment was 2.7%.

    As a result, Dell's total revenue grew by 17% over the past few years and its operating margin increased from 4.1% to 7.1% in the same period. The stock, however, still trades at only 7.7 times its earnings, about half of the 14.8 P/E for the S&P 500.

    For all that, Dell has some challenges ahead that are keeping investors from feeling too bullish. For one, Chinese companies are starting to get aggressive in the low-end servers that has been an area of growth for Dell. Intel's (INTC) Ivy Bridge chip, which powers higher-end laptops, is facing a delay.

    And the flooding in Thailand late last year disrupted the supply of hard disk drives, although one analyst, Jefferies & Co.'s Peter Misek, has said he thinks that all the talk about Thai floods is really "a smokescreen to mask underlying slower demand trends," such as the increasing popularity of iPads. The ability of Windows 8 to run on tablets could also pressure PC prices further, even as the components used to make PCs inch higher.

    Those concerns have weighed on Dell's stock in recent weeks, causing it to drop 10% from its February high. Dell's turnaround has taken nearly five years to start winning over investors. It has at least a few more months of hazards to navigate in the PC business still at its core. But if it can weather them, the company's second act could be a strong one.