Dell's 1Q performance based on a re-swizziling of fiscal calendar
Dell is still behind from where they were a year ago if you look at a full four quarters of storage revenues.
Dell/EMC's 1Q calendar year performance is largely explained by a one time adjustment of fiscal calendar year from January to December, previously to the new calendar cycle of February to end of January.
For this one time cycle, Dell benefited by comparing their seasonably lowest 3 months of the year in 2017, to their single seasonably highest end of year month, plus the first two months of next fiscal year, in calendar 1Q18.
This means a very easy compare, and not important to obsess over. Even the Dell execs said their performance going forward would be 'lumpy' (at least four times in the earnings transcript). It also means that for this one period, Dell appears to have gained share vs. competitors (but it came at the expense of Dell's negative fourth quarter last year.
So watch and wait until next quarter to see where this really goes.
I'm sure many of you will not be impressed.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
