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An entrepreneur's dream

The story begins in 1984, when Michael Saul Dell was a medical freshman at the University of Texas. Having a personal computer was expensive and time consuming and, in general, people didn't know exactly what they wanted with that device. The machine left the manufacturer, went to the distributor, then to the stores and only then arrived at your home, with a pre-defined configuration.

The young entrepreneur realized that he could cut several of these processes at once and make a direct sale to the consumer. In dormitory 2713 of the university's residential building, PC's Limited was born. She had an opening capital of $1,000, which was lent by Michael's parents

The home store sold PCs made from scratch with parts bought in stock by Dell and assembled according to the customer's interest.

Dell practically invented the system for you to choose the technical specifications that is so common today when buying a computer.

For the up and away

In the same year that the company opened, he left college to focus only on business. This was a difficult year for small and recent companies, as Apple would launch the Macintosh and IBM was the absolute market leader, with several similar brands behind.

From there, the company starts to grow and never stops. Dell then increases the number of employees to meet the demand and starts offering differentials such as sales and technical assistance over the phone.

Dell already expanding

The company's first original design computer was the Turbo PC. It had an 8 MHz Intel 8088 processor, a 10 MB hard drive and a 5.25 "floppy drive.

Dell bought ads across the country for more reach, but maintained direct contact with the public and offered the model in several configurations. The Turbo PC cost $795, far less than the 3,000 for a complete IBM PC, and it was a success.

In 1988, the company made a public offering of shares, raising $30 million in investment. A little earlier, she changed her name to Dell Computer Corporation, taking the founder's last name. The first logo was as bland as possible and still did not have that "E" half lying down, which only came in 1989. Later, the brand is placed inside a circle in the same shade of blue.

Expanding dreams

The following year, it launches the brand's first laptop, the 316LT. Even though we weighed 6 kg, it was a cheaper alternative than the competition because of direct selling. Notebooks are going to be a lot more important for the company a few years later.

In the early 1990s, it already has two bases in Europe and also serves the Middle East and Africa. In 1992, Dell appears on Fortune magazine's list of 500 largest corporations. Michael becomes the youngest CEO in the list's history, aged 27.

At that time, Dell's focus is not yet on the more casual consumer market, but on the more fanatical audience for electronics, in addition to companies and governments. But, little by little, this begins to change.

First big stumble

In 1994, after much resistance, Dell surrenders to specialized and department stores and starts selling products at retail. But then he regrets it, because the company gets beaten up by the brands that were already used to this model. That's when it backs off a bit, enters the networked server market with the PowerEdge family, and expands the corporate catalog. In the same period, Dell became one of the pioneers to use longer-life lithium-ion batteries in its electronics.

Two years later, an opportunity appears. The brand creates the Dell.com website on an internet site and starts selling products online, in addition to providing technical assistance.

It is the same approximation of the time when she made sales by phone and you could set up the PC configuration in a much more intuitive way. In just six months, the company reaches the milestone of $ 1 million a day in sales

And if she left the old competitors behind, she won a new one. In 97, Michael Dell says that if he were CEO of Apple, he would close the company and return the money to shareholders. Jobs made a furious speech the same year when he introduced the Apple Store online and launched a commercial with Muhammad Ali beating a first-person opponent, which would be Dell.

The height

But it was no use. In 2001, consecration comes. Dell becomes the largest provider of computer systems in the world and the leader in PC sales in the United States. Dell invests heavily in marketing and wins both the workstation and consumer markets. She liked first place, and she didn't want to quit at all.

At the beginning of this decade, she launched a commercial that became a classic in the USA, with the slogan 'Dude, you're buying a Dell'. The brand still enters markets such as printers and projectors. In the business area, it expands storage services and IT solutions.

Departure and return

In 2004, Michael Dell leaves the post of CEO to Kevin Rollins and is dedicated to personal projects and philanthropy. The following years were difficult in sales, and HP became a rival in the PC market. In 2007, the board asked him to return to office, now needing to reinvent himself.

One of the novelties is the purchase of Alienware in 2006, a manufacturer more focused on the gamer market. As part of the redesign, in the coming years he will close some North American units, increase the focus on services and go shopping.

In four years, there are 20 acquisitions in an investment of 13 billion dollars. One of the main ones is that of Perot Systems, an IT service provider for banking, healthcare, government, insurance, manufacturing and more. It changes its name to Dell Services and lasts until 2016, when it is sold again, now to NTT DATA.

Michael Dell's strategy works and the company maintains a reputation for software and services; but it fails ugly to enter the mobile world and does not keep up with the growth of smartphones and other markets

It also lags behind in its most positive points. Many people start to criticize the quality of products and the technical assistance scheme, being overtaken by new and old rivals.

Great products

And it is worth highlighting some Dell product lines. You can't talk about everything, because she is in many areas, so let's just leave some of the main families here. And as she highlights on PCs, we're going to focus on them.

One of Dell's most famous desktop families is Dimension. It was targeting the consumer market and was only discontinued in 2007.

Dell Dimension 1000

The OptiPlex line appeared almost together, in the early 90s, and was more focused on governments, companies and schools. It still gets additions, only that it lost a lot of space for the Latitude line laptops.

Part of the OptiPlex line

But Inspiron is perhaps Dell's most famous. This family ranges from entry level laptops to more demanding models. The line has even housed netbooks, and the first models are from the mid-90s.

The acronym is for Xtreme Performance System, and the models are usually more geared towards gamers and multimedia and include other families that we have already mentioned. The first are from 1993 and were top of the line for the time.