PC company Dell showed IBM and Compaq its mettle today when it turned in Q3 profits of $384 million on equivalently buoyant increases in turnover. It made $384 million on turnover of $4.82 billion, an increase in profitability of 55 per cent. If its profitability and turnover increases, it will hit nearly $6 billion by the end of the year at that rate of growth. That will confound IBM and Compaq, both of which turned their channel policies on their heads during this year. While Compaq has shown signs of stagnancy during the year, it cannot, however be written off. Earlier this week it announced further plans to go direct but still has a lot of problems on its plate, particularly the integration of Digital and Tandem. Dell sales were buoyant throughout most of the known world, meaning that chip supplier Intel was right in its forecasts earlier on this week. Dell is an Intel-based company. Europe, in particular, was far rosier than expected, with sales climbing by 68 per cent in the quarter. ®