Michael Dell on business units: If it's not number one, we sold it

Dell boldly claims to number one in "everything"

Michael Dell has boldly claimed his firm is leading its competition in "everything", referring to 10 markets including servers, storage and cloud software.

Throughout the Dell EMC World event in Austin, Michael Dell has made numerous references to its number-one spot in multiple sectors, claiming the combination of Dell and EMC - including VMware, Virtustream, RSA and Pivotal - has vastly boosted the breadth of its portfolio.

In his keynote address today, Dell said: "This unique structure allows us to be nimble and innovative like a start-up but with the scale of a global powerhouse. For you that means a technology partner which can be number one in everything all in one place. You, our customers and partners, have made us the leaders in servers, storage, virtualisation, security, cloud software and cloud infrastructure, software-defined datacentre, converged and hyperconverged infrastructure and in platform as a service. Thank you. We're the leader in 20 Gartner Magic Quadrants."

The source, timeframe and geographical basis of each claim was not specified during his address but further details on this are detailed on its website.

Prior to the closure of the Dell EMC deal, Dell sold off a number of its business units - including Dell Software and its IT services business.

"When we talk about number one in everything - if it's not number one, we sold it. So there you go," he quipped.

In a press Q&A session after his keynote today, Dell was quizzed on his plans to return to the number one spot in the PC market.

He said: "We're number one in PC revenues. We're not number one in units. But to us revenue is more important. I know a lot of you focus a lot on units. We're growing faster than the others in units but if we want to be number one in units, it's actually pretty easy, if I can say that. We focused on the revenues so we're selling the 7 series and our competitors are selling the little ones. That's why we have fewer units and more revenue. By the way, we also have more profit."