Dell claims it will out-pace the rest of the PC industry this year. But that may not be much of a boast. The company doesn't know whether the industry is actually on the way up.

"For the first nine months of this year, according to IDC, Dell grew a few points faster than the overall industry for our unit growth," Michael Dell told Reuters this morning. "We expect for the full year, Dell will grow faster than the industry."

Last month, the number two PC maker warned that in Q3, a "further softening" of demand would hit Europe and Asia as well as the US. So saying it will out-pace the rest of the industry may not be saying much.

At the end of August, Dell posted a surprise 17 per cent profit drop.

The company boasts that sales have jumped 30 per cent in China and Hong Kong this year, but Dell China vice president Alex Yung told Reuters that the future is uncertain. "Honestly, how things will turn out next year is hard to say," he said. "We don't know what kind of policy the Chinese government will come up with. If they continue to encourage domestic consumption, we wouldn't be too worried."

Michael Dell isn't worried. At least not publicly. But despite his braggadocio, his company's stock price is down 6 per cent today in NASDAQ trading. ®

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