Dell to move PowerEdge production to Malaysia

Dell Computer will move the regional production quota of PowerEdge PC servers from Europe to its Asia-Pacific customer centre in Malaysia by the end of the year, according to Mort Topfer, vice-chairman of the world's largest direct marketer of PC systems.

Mr Topfer, who was in Penang during the electricity blackout that disrupted production at many high-technology plants earlier this month, said his firm had emerged unscathed from the power cut which had fallen in between its production shifts.

Dell, based in Texas, claims to draw 92 per cent of its sales from the corporate sector and is anticipating a profound change in the Operating Systems buying trends with the scheduled release of Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 later this month.

Dell pre-loads OS software with the PCs it sells in the region and expects to see a switch from Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 for client OS software to the latest version of the Windows NT Workstation.

Mr Topfer said momentum for Windows NT as the preferred OS business PC would be felt within the year.