Dell computers decision to drop its direct-only sales approach appears to be paying off as the company looks to become the markets biggest seller this year. With the units now available at a plethora of stores including Tesco and PC World, director Michael Dell sees a rosy future for the company –

‘Let’s say you wanted to buy a Dell computer in a store nine months ago - you’d have searched a long time and not found one. Now we have over 10,000 stores that sell our products. We’re growing faster than our industry, so if we keep that up, we’ll certainly get there’

Dell is now planning to base their new emphasis on design, with more attention to colour and materials being considered to keep up to speed with other competitor’s models.

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Apple Mac computers are currently planning to re vamp their laptop design with more environmentally friendly packaging.

Insiders are speculating that the MacBook will be losing plastic casings in favour of more aluminium and steel, two far more recyclable materials. This change of material will follow the trend set by the Apple’s latest offering; the Macbook Air. The current design was unveiled in January 2006 as the first Mac to incorporate the Intel processor chip, which replaced the old Aluminium G4.

Apple is expected to release the new designs this summer, and if previous incarnations are anything to go by, expect them to be super slick.

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Rumours are afoot in the hardware market that Dell computers are about to release a micro desktop as direct competition to the Apple Mac Mini.

With a planned release later this year, the Dell micro computer is going to be 80% smaller than the average desktop, whilst also using 70% less energy. The machine itself will also be created for recyclable material and delivered in recyclable packaging.

With Dell previewing the desktop at the Earth Day conference in California, it seems the company is heading towards an environmentally friendly stance, for which they should be applauded.

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