Summary
What Dell could divest/expand into has implications for several industries, from computing to storage, to mobile telecoms.
Analysis
Dell's market leadership has been built on low cost PCs and shipping directly to their customers.
It then evolved with customer care and customisation on a wide range of computers, but its core strength remains low cost and direct shipping.
However, this is not enough anymore, as competition has caught up and other factors such as packaging, colours, features, ecosystems for associated products are proving very important.
In terms of acquisition, likely areas include storage, software and services.
Dell could indeed shake things up in the world of cloud computing, combined with their hardware heritage.
But an interesting area would be strengthening their business solutions offering, and moving into the mobile phone market. How about a customisable mobile phone for corporates? Might lead to a unique proposition against Blackberry.
There are a number of contenders around which dell could buy to develop just that.
