Dell talks about retail strategy

Dell reiterated his company's assertion that there will be more to come of its recent dabblings in selling desktops and notebooks through retail channels.

"We're going to expand to a number of places," he said. "I would expect over the next quarters you'll see several additional key retailers" that will sell Dell products. Retailers like that the company can deliver small lots of PCs to thousands of locations, he said. Though right now the few models sold retail in the U.S. are pre-configured, he said it was "a possibility" that their retail customers might be able to build their PCs to order as well.

So far Dell has announced retail relationships with Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in the U.S., Carphone Warehouse in Europe and Bic Camera in Japan. The Wal-Mart experiment has "gone well," according to vice president of marketing Mark Jarvis, one of the other executives in town for the event. "A number of stores sold out rapidly," he said. They added that though the initial volumes shipped to Wal-Mart were not large, "a full rollout" is coming.