Dell announced its fiscal 2013 first quarter results today, continuing to show progress in its move to being a total enterprise services and solutions provider. Revenue for the quarter was $14.4 billion, with GAAP operating income of $824 million, and earnings of $0.36 per share.

"We're committed to continuing our strategy to re-shape Dell's business as an end-to-end IT provider," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. "We saw continued progress in our first quarter with the innovative IT solutions we're providing - notably our latest Dell servers, storage, networking and services that deliver customers enhanced productivity."

"We continued to shift the mix of our business during a challenging environment," said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer. "Our enterprise solutions and services businesses now account for 50 percent of our gross margin, and we'll continue to make the necessary investments to maintain our progress."

Microsoft Corp. today announced the return of its successful student offer that allows students buying a qualifying Windows 7-based PC to also get a free Xbox 360 4GB console. The offer is available for current students while supplies last, starting May 20 at participating retailers in the U.S.; a similar offer will be available starting May 18 at participating retailers in Canada. Terms and conditions will vary by participating retailer.

Together, a Windows 7-based PC and an Xbox 360 console provide students the functionality they need for school while also helping them stay connected to friends and family far away. To take advantage of this offer, students or their parents must provide valid student identification as defined by the participating retailer. Participating retailers may change over the course of the promotion, but will include Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Dell.com, HPDirect.com, Microsoft Stores and NewEgg.com in the U.S., and Best Buy, Dell.ca, Future Shop, Staples and The Source in Canada.

Alliacense today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has purchased a license for its CORE Flash Portfolio Licensing Program. The agreement resolves the ITC Investigation and District Court lawsuit recently filed against the Korean electronics giant. Samsung joins a rapidly growing list of CORE Flash Portfolio licensees, including Lexmark, ASUStek, Philips and Lenovo.

In order to protect the investments of the CORE Flash licensee community, the successful CORE Flash Licensing Program has been dramatically enhanced with aggressive enforcement activities -- including the filing of two separate waves of patent infringement complaints with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and US District Court against nearly 40 companies in the past 9 months.

Dell today announced that customers such as Morphlabs and Vibrant Media are using Dell microserver technologies based on Intel Xeon processors to power business-critical web 2.0, cloud, and content delivery networks (CDN), as well as high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Driven by the emergence of a growing hardware and application ecosystem, x86-based microservers are rapidly evolving from a niche solution to one with widespread awareness and value.

"We're constantly inspired by the unique ways our customers are leveraging Dell microserver platforms to drive specialized web 2.0, HPC and cloud computing applications," said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Dell Server Solutions. "As the microserver market and ecosystem have matured, customers like Vibrant Media have validated that microservers are a cost-effective, scalable platform in web 2.0 environments."

AMD announced today that Colette LaForce, 39, will join the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, reporting to President and Chief Executive Officer Rory Read. In her new role, LaForce will lead global integrated marketing for AMD, including marketing strategy, branding, internal and external communications, corporate events, sponsorships and entertainment marketing.

"Colette brings strong technology marketing and brand-building experience, a fresh perspective and a results-oriented approach that will strengthen AMD's global marketing organization," Read said. "Her deep expertise will accelerate the revitalization of the AMD brand, amplifying our voice in the marketplace while helping position the company for long-term growth."

Alienware announced that outstanding (pending) orders of M14x, M17x, and M18x gaming notebooks, which were placed before last month's refresh to the Core "Ivy Bridge" processor platform, will be upgraded for free, to Ivy Bridge. Such customers with pending orders are being notified by email that their selected models with previous-generation Core "Sandy Bridge" processors will be upgraded to their "Ivy Bridge" equivalents, at no additional charge, and with no delay in their delivery dates. This offer applies only to the Alienware line, and not other Dell notebooks.

Dell continues to deliver high-performance laptops and desktops for families, multimedia professionals and businesses demanding power and performance for complex tasks and immersive entertainment activities. The XPS 8500 and Vostro 470 desktops are now available with Intel's 3rd generation quad-core processors and the latest discrete graphics on Dell.com for professionals who demand high-performance technology. Additionally, Dell is expanding the laptop line-up with the Inspiron Special Edition series for families who desire enhanced multimedia capabilities. The Inspiron Special Edition 14R and 15R are available today in select countries in Asia.

The XPS 8500 Desktop: Advanced Performance for Creatives

The XPS 8500 desktop delivers a superb user experience for creatives who demand uncompromising performance, whether composing music, working on graphics-intensive design, creating and editing various multimedia, or playing games. The desktop features a premium fit and finish in a compact chassis without sacrificing future expandability.

Alienware, Dell's high performance PC gaming brand, is taking the mobile gaming experience to a new level with its enhanced gaming laptop portfolio that lets gamers choose a system that best fits their mobile lifestyle. The enhanced systems include: the M14x, the most powerful 14-inch laptop in the universe, for the gamer who requires a balance between mobility and performance; the 3D-capablei M17x for an immersive high-definition, surround-sound sensory experience, and the M18x - also the most powerful 18-inch laptop in the universe - for gamers whose priority is performance above all else, but who also require the option to occasionally 'go mobile.'

The Alienware M14x, M17x, and M18x laptops deliver immersive sensory experiences, with each offering the latest NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon HD graphics cards and the Creative Sound Blaster audio chipset with THX 7.1 digital surround sound and Klipsch-branded speakers.

Dell's newly redesigned portfolio of Dell Precision tower workstations announced today delivers superb performance, accessibility and best-in-class¹ chassis design to help creative and design professionals deliver results faster. Dell engineered its tower workstations to enable engineering, product design, animation, and other graphics and compute intensive professionals increased productivity and minimized downtime so they can focus on their innovations.

From creating the 854 stereo 3D VFX shots featured in the award-winning movie "Hugo" to designing unique architectural spaces to analyzing seismic data to accelerate exploration of natural reserves, companies around the world rely on Dell Precision workstations to design and deliver superb results fast.

Kingston launched a fleet of new system-specific SO-DIMM memory packages. Each of these packages contain memory that's tested for 100% compatibility and rated performance on the notebook makes they're specific to. These include HP, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. The new packages make it easy for ground-store buyers to pick the right memory for their notebooks off the rack, with minimal help from the storekeepers. Newer batches of Kingston DDR3 SO-DIMM memory for notebooks will implement the new packaging.

Still not officially announced by Dell, the Alienware M18X R2 gaming laptop has once again found its way in the news thanks to a leak detailing its hardware. According to the latest scoop, the M18X R2 will pack a quad-core Intel (Ivy Bridge) processor - either the 2.3 GHz Core i7-3610QM, 2.6 GHz i7-3720QM or 2.7 GHz i7-3820QM, AMD (Radeon HD 7970M in CrossFire) or NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 660M or GTX 675M in SLI) graphics, up to 8 GB of RAM, and up to a 750 GB (7200 RPM) hard drive, and/or a solid state drive with a capacity of up to 512 GB.

The updated Alienware M18X will also feature an 18.4-inch (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display, a Wireless HD card (optional), a 240 W or 330 W AC adapter, and two color choices - red and black.

Courtesy of a new scoop by dell-lab.posterous.com we now have some specs of Dell's upcoming Precision M4700 (15.6-inch) and M6700 (17.3-inch) laptops. Powered by Intel chips, the two new Precision models are supposed to feature 65 Whr or 97 Whr batteries, DDR3 1866 MHz memory options, 2.5-inch HDD/SSD (one drive for the M4700, up to two for the M6700) storage, a built-in webcam, an ExpressCard slot, an SD card reader, and optional WiGig (wireless Gigabit).

The Precision M4700 also packs a Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display with anti-glare coating, and either NVIDIA N14PQx (28 nm) or AMD FirePro M4000 graphics, while the M6700 can have a 2D or 3D Full HD display, and AMD Heathrow XT or NVIDIA N14EQx GPUs. The laptops' release dates are yet unknown.

The worldwide PC market saw a slight increase in volume during the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12) compared to the same quarter in 2011, with shipments rising 2.3%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The results are slightly above IDC's February projections of a 0.9% year-on-year decline due to hard disk drive (HDD) supply constraints in addition to weak economic conditions, competition from other devices, and uncertainty about Windows 8.

HDD supply remained a key constraint through most of the first quarter, although PC makers generally had better access to drives than customers in the retail and distribution channels. As a result, large PC vendors were able to maintain shipments by managing inventory or absorbing price increases, while the impact to shipments from smaller PC makers was in line with expectations.

Dell today announced it has acquired Clerity Solutions, a leading global provider of applications modernization and re-hosting solutions and services. Clerity's capabilities will enable Dell Services to help customers reduce the cost of transitioning business-critical applications and data from legacy computing systems and onto more modern architectures, including the cloud.

Dell has taken significant steps over the past three years to expand its services capabilities to help customers manage the increasing complexity of IT, including the ability to support growing volumes of data, streamline processes and ease the transition to cloud-based solutions.

Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, to significantly extend its desktop virtualization offerings. The addition of Wyse will expand Dell's desktop virtualization capabilities and provide new solutions and services opportunities for the full range of Dell's enterprise offerings.

In some environments, a virtual desktop allows enterprises to more efficiently and securely manage their users and end point devices. With this acquisition, Dell expands its enterprise solutions portfolio and offers customers an ever broadening array of tailored solutions to meet their needs.

According to a fresh report, in Q2 Dell will be releasing a new XPS 15 laptop, one that makes use of Intel's 3rd generation Core processors (codename Ivy Bridge), has a chassis just 24.2 mm thick (down from 38 mm of the current XPS 15), and packs a 15.6-inch WLED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) display protected by Gorilla Glass.

The upgraded XPS 15 is said to feature a Core i5-3210M or Core i7-3612M CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB HDD or a 512 GB SSD, a GeForce GT 630M or GT 640M graphics card, a glass trackpad, a 3-in-1 card reader, USB 3.0 connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and both HDMI and mini DisplayPort outputs. The laptop's release date and pricing scheme have yet to leak.

Wintel (slang for Windows+Intel architecture) tablets, which launch along with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system, which grab a greater market-share than WoA (Windows on ARM) tablets by the end of 2012, DigiTimes research predicts. This, despite the fact that the x86 and ARM versions of the operating system will be released simultaneously. PC majors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, ASUStek and Toshiba, have all pledged 1-3 models of Wintel tablets by the end of 2012. Although still an emerging market-segment, tablets will see a clash between x86 and ARM architectures, as they are wooing for the same exact class of devices for the first time in computing history. Intel has made a lot of progress in miniaturizing the Atom processor, while led by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA, ARM processors are getting stronger.

Worldwide factory revenue for the high performance computing (HPC) technical server market increased by 8.4% in full-year 2011 to reach a record $10.3 billion, up from $9.5 billion in 2010, according to the newly released International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide High-Performance Technical Server QView. The 2011 results exceeded IDC's forecast of 7.2% year-over-year revenue growth.

Unit shipments in 2011 declined 6.9% year over year as average selling prices grew, indicating a continued shift to large system sales. IBM and HP ended the year in a statistical tie for leadership with 32.6% and 32.1% of overall factory revenue market share, respectively. (Note: IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide server market when there is less than one percent difference in the factory revenues of two or more vendors.)

Dell today announced a new financing program to support customers migrating from EMC and NetApp legacy storage products to Dell storage arrays.

The new Dell Storage Swap program provides cash credits and attractive lease terms for customers retiring EMC CLARiiON CX, Celerra and VNX, and various NetApp FAS systems and upgrading to new Dell Compellent and EqualLogic virtualized, modular storage arrays. Dell simplifies the transition for customers by offering specialized migration services, award-winning ProSupport and Copilot support and other financial incentives such as Dell Financial Services leasing options. In keeping with its longstanding commitment to green initiatives, Dell will provide safe and environmentally responsible disposal of the obsolete and retired IT equipment.

The Dell Storage Swap program is available to all customers and Dell PartnerDirect resellers in the U.S. and Canada, now through July 31, 2012.

Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SonicWALL, Inc., a leader in advanced network security and data protection. SonicWALL's industry-leading Next-Generation Firewalls and Unified Threat Management (UTM) Firewalls complement Dell's security solutions portfolio, enabling it to offer customers a broader range of enterprise offerings.

Customers of all sizes face increasing challenges in maintaining effective IT security, from the exponential growth of data and rapid adoption of cloud-based solutions, to the increased presence of consumer devices brought into the enterprise environment. SonicWALL expands Dell's rapidly growing security portfolio, which includes Dell SecureWorks security services, cloud security solutions and data encryption solutions, and Dell KACE vulnerability and patch management.

The workstation market proceeded ahead in the fourth quarter of 2011, completing a long climb back from the 2009 depths of the global economic recession that had slashed its shipments by over 40 percent. But that fourth quarter advance was more a case of "steady as she goes" than "full speed ahead", reports Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera.

The leading market research firm has completed its data collection and analysis of results from the quarter, and finds Q4 followed the same basic storyline Herrera had been laying out over the previous few quarters. The market has not only fully recovered from the recession, it's showing continued stability and some undeniable signs of strength. But at the same time, there remain scattered pockets of concern, as the market has yet to resume the pace of growth it sustained back in the years 2005 through 2008.

Building on the information already revealed in January, a new Dell-flavored scoop says that the upcoming Alienware M17x R4 (17.4-inch) laptop will offer three display options, one HD+ (1600 x 900), one Full HD (1920 x 1080) and one Full HD 3D. Moreover, this gaming-ready machine is claimed to utilize eDP for LCD communication.

The Alienware M17x R4 will be powered by Ivy Bridge processors, feature both AMD (Radeon HD 7970M) and NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 675M) discrete graphics, and will be available in two color schemes - black and red. Still no word on its release but it should arrive in Q2.

NVIDIA today announced that its NVIDIA Tesla GPUs will be featured, for the first time, on two Dell PowerEdge 12th generation rack and tower servers.

Dell designed the new GPU-enabled PowerEdge R720 and PowerEdge T620 servers to accelerate a wide range of computationally intensive, industry standard applications, including Mathworks MATLAB (for computational research) and SIMULIA Abaqus (for computer-aided engineering). In addition, the new servers combine the 512-core NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPUs with the latest Intel Xeon E5/R CPUs based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture to accelerate a range of scientific applications in fields such as life sciences, engineering, weather and climate, and others.

Dell today announced a portfolio of blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers optimized for use in demanding enterprise environments. As the only one of the top five server vendors to grow server revenues in Q4 2011 with 9.7 percent year-over-year revenue growth, Dell continues to innovate to deliver features that are industry firsts and make the PowerEdge 12th generation servers the company's highest performing, most manageable servers ever. With this new server series, customers ranging from small businesses to hyper-scale data centers can help maximize efficiency by streamlining and automating operations, help achieve better business application performance and business continuity.

"Dell designed the new PowerEdge servers with input gathered from more than 7,700 customer interactions in 17 countries across four continents," said Brad Anderson, President of Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell. "Our customers told us that they need end-to-end solutions to handle the complex workload problems they face every day. As such, we built our new generation of servers, systems management and workload solutions to address the needs of business end users who require maximum performance to run mission-critical applications and IT departments which demand more efficient, secure and reliable operations."

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, factory revenue in the worldwide server market decreased 7.2% year over year to $14.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11). This was the first quarterly decline in factory revenue in two years. Worldwide server shipments increased 2.0% to 2.2 million units in 4Q11 when compared with the year-ago period.

For the full year 2011, worldwide server revenue increased 5.8% to $52.3 billion when compared to 2010, while worldwide unit shipments increased 4.2% to 8.3 million units.

On a year-over-year basis, all three classes of servers experienced decreased factory revenue totals in the fourth quarter. Volume systems experienced a 2.0% year-over-year factory revenue decline to $8.8 billion, while midrange revenue decreased 4.6% to $1.8 billion when compared to 4Q10. Additionally, high-end system revenue declined 18.4% to $3.7 billion in the quarter. This is the first time all three server classes have experienced year-over-year declines in revenue since the third quarter of 2009.