When Was the First Dell Computer Made?
While other college students devoted themselves to studying beer bongs and the opposite sex, 19-year-old Michael Dell was spending his free time tinkering with computers. Imbued with the idea that all things are possible and possessing plenty of intuition and marketing acumen, he moved from student to mogul on the wings of his first computer design, the Turbo PC. Certain that the best way to market his computer was to go directly to consumers, he plunged ahead, introducing his first product into a supercharged sales environment that would take the company on a meteoric roller-coaster ride of growth.
The Adventure Begins
At age 15, Michael Dell began dissecting Apple computers, including his own, to find out how they ticked. When his bedroom became too cramped to hold the components of his re-engineering projects, he moved his enterprise to his parents' garage. There may have been no happier set of parents on the planet when Dell entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, moving his enterprise to his dorm room. Dell quickly realized that the thrill he received from customizing and redesigning computers far surpassed that of any class in which he was enrolled at UT, so with his parents' blessing and a $1,000 loan, he quit the academic scene and founded PCs Limited.
Dell Sets Up Shop
By the time Michael Dell moved out of his dorm room and into his own business space, he already had immersed himself in the business end of the computer redesign trade. Branching out from his earliest experiments with Apple computers, Dell determined that IBM compatibles were more to his liking for multiple reasons, and his dorm-room revamps and sales confirmed his decision to commit to the PC platform. Additionally, Dell had become a steady customer of IBM parts wholesalers, so his network of suppliers was firmly in place when he left college.
Company Takes Off
Dell was savvy enough to know that while his PCs equaled the quality of IBMs, his marketing strategy couldn't compete with Big Blue and other well-established manufacturers. His decision to sell his first computer, called the Turbo PC, directly to customers, circumventing retailers, proved insightful and fortuitous. Consumers read his ads in computer magazines and quickly fell in love with the idea of getting a great computer filled with IBM components, but without the IBM price tag. By the time Dell readied his books for filing his 1984 income tax, PCs Limited was showing $80,000 per month in revenue.
Dell Competes with Big Boys in 1985
Whether or not they were thrilled to have him out of the house -- or perhaps pride spurred the gift -- Michael Dell's family invested $300,000 in his business in 1985 to underwrite the growth of PCs Limited. That year, the idea of having a custom-made computer at an affordable price went viral. Finding himself the leader in mail-order PC sales just a year into his launch, Dell realized he needed help running the business now that revenues had escalated from $6 million to $40 million. He hired marketing pros to help boost the company's image and changed the name of the company to Dell Computer Corporation. Before he was legally able to drink, Dell bumped himself up to CEO of the company and handed the reins of Dell's presidency over to investment banker E. Lee Walker.
Reorganization in 1987
Start-ups that grow too fast can run into problems, but Dell's Turbo PC sales volume demanded rapid expansion to handle manufacturing, customer service, installation, maintenance and repair services. A catalog was published, and commercial sales exploded as a pricey ad campaign spread the word. But all was not well. Michael Dell realized that his original mission had fallen by the wayside. The 22-year-old decided to reel in the runaway corporation by getting rid of the marketers and returning to the business model on which he had founded Dell: customization, customer and product service, and next-day delivery.
Future of the Brand
Today, Michael Dell is moving his company in a direction guaranteed to delight eco-conscious fans of the Dell brand. His most recent debut: a never-before-seen, eco-friendly computer featuring a bamboo case loaded with components made from recycled milk jugs, detergent boxes and bottles. This sleek laptop is more than 80 percent smaller than standard Dell desktop computers and uses 70 percent less power. Debuting in 2009, Dell's newest baby upholds his philosophy to keep his products affordable, so expect a price tag of between $500 and $700 for this exotic computer.
Tags: Michael Dell, Dell Computer, Apple computers, Computer Made, Dell Computer Made