Dell expects disk drive shortage to hurt revenues

"Given the uncertain macroeconomic environment and complexity in working through the industry-wide hard drive issue, the company is trending to the lower end of the range of its revenue outlook of 1 to 5-percent full fiscal-year growth," the company announced in a press release. In an interview with Reuters, Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer, said that Dell may give priority to "higher-end customers and products" because of the situation in Thailand. Dell's net income climbed 9 percent for the third quarter while YoY revenue remained flat. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO emphasised the importance of research and development. “We’re now investing in research and development activities at almost a billion-dollar annual run rate and our earnings per share is up 86 percent over the last 12 months,” he said.