Dell posts 177% profit boost after increasing enterprise sales

Dell has boosted profits by 177% since last year after increasing sales to enterprise customers.

In its Q1 fiscal 2012 year results, Dell's profits were up 177% to $945m, compared with the first quarter of its fiscal year 2011 profits of $341m. During the quarter, corporate PC refreshes caused sales of desktop and laptops to rise 7% and enterprise services sales to large businesses increased 5% to $4.4bn.

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer, said: "Our substantial profit increase demonstrates that our strategy is working and our execution is improving."

Overall sales rose just 1% during the first quarter, with the company's enterprise services division accounting for 30% of the total $15bn sales.

Lower component costs, which were down 9% from the previous year, could have contributed to increased laptop profitability.

However, consumer sales fell 7% to $3bn. Public sector sales also experienced a 2% decline due to reduced spending on desktop and laptop devices.

In the quarter, Dell completed its acquisition of virtualised data storage company Compellent, to expand its enterprise storage offering. However, Dell's overall storage business sales dropped 13%.

The company is also investing $1bn (£613m) into new cloud-based technologies and datacentres during its current fiscal year.

• Read Computer Weekly's interview with Dell's CIO.