The other company in the mix is Acer which, as Reuters reports, said in April that it was planning to buy a PC company in three to five months.
Acer's channel business model is instrumental to the company's success, while its multi-brand approach integrates Acer, Gateway, and Packard Bell brands in worldwide markets.
ENGADGET: AcerCloud blows into Europe, bringing remote access to your (Acer) laptop
And Acer is no exception: the company is introducing touch-enabled versions of its existing Aspire V5 and M5 laptops, both of which will go on sale this month.
ENGADGET: Acer Aspire V5 and M5 laptops will be available with touchscreens this month
Acer acquired the California-based computer company in 2007 and continues to sell products under the Gateway name, particularly at big box stores like Best Buy.
FORBES: Acer Prepping 7-Inch Android Tablet, Weighing Meego Tablet
Though the unit shares some suppliers with Acer, it operates like a startup within the company.
Analyst Vincent Chen of Taipei's Yuanta Securities says that Acer's recent innovations may help reverse the company's decline, but that much more work remains to be done before it is out of the woods.
The challenge for Dell is that it will be competing against Acer, Lenovo and others - but the sheer size of the company should act as an advantage.
When Acer first announced the Timeline Ultra laptops back at CES, the company didn't explicitly describe them as Ultrabooks -- in fact, we thought of them more as mainstream notebooks, successors to last year's TimelineX series.
According to AMD, both Acer Laboratories and Via Technologies have committed to developing chip sets for the company's next-generation K7 processor.
For the most part, Acer blew its Windows 8 load back at IFA and Computex, but as we're learning now, the company still had a handful of goodies left to announce.
ENGADGET: Acer announces Aspire 5600U and 7600U all-in-ones, coming this month for $1,000 and up
That said, Wu notes that he remains concerned that the company is in a tough position fundamentally in the PC business, with low-cost players Lenovo and Acer encroaching on one one side, and Apple gaining ground on the other.
FORBES: Dell: Sterne Agee Ups To Neutral On Valuation Basis; Still No Fan
应用推荐