By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:34 AM ET Jun 7, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Dell Inc. took the wraps off of its next generation of server computers Wednesday in the computing giant's latest move to regain momentum among its business customer base and put an end to its slowing revenue growth.
Dell (DELL) is aiming at simplicity with its new PowerEdge 1950, 2900 and 2950 servers, and PowerEdge 1955 blade server. All the new servers are based on the same basic technological format, which Dell said would also be the basis for the next server upgrade, likely to be in two years.
Brad Anderson, senior vice president of Dell's product group, called the new server releases, "the most significant enterprise (product) launch in two years." Anderson said that with Dell seeing about 85% of its revenue coming from business customers, the new servers are aimed at "our sweet spot."
According to Dell, the servers are also the first on the market to use the latest Xeon dual core microprocessors from Intel Corp. (INTC) . The servers will come in two versions, running on either Intel's 5000 series dual core processor, also known as Dempsey, and the 5100 dual core chip, commonly called Woodcrest. The servers running on the Xeon 5000 chips will start at $1,749 and $1,849. Dell officials said prices for the 5100 series servers will be available in the coming weeks.
Dell, currently the No. 3 worldwider server company behind Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) , is trying to find new ways of growing its overall sales, expand its consumer business offerings and prevent further stagnation in its core enterprise customer business.
When Dell reported its first quarter results in May, the company said servers and networking contributed $1.3 billion of the company's total revenue of $14.2 billion. However, server and networking sales were basically flat from the year-ago period, and down 7% from Dell preceeding fourth fiscal quarter.
Dell shares fell 31 cents to trade Wednesday at $25.31.
Rex Crum is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francis