Michael Dell talked with GigaOM the other day about what’s happening with the company. In the interview, he talks about how Dell is growing, Cloud Computing, the Laptop Market and if they are getting into the Smart phone market.

Michael says they are seeing a strong turn since he took back the CEO spot a year and a half ago. Sales are up 9% and profit is up 4% and continuing (stock is up 23%). Dell made 7 acquisitions in 2007 which will add to the increase. Michael pointed out that the Laptop market demands thinner and faster while all markets are pushing security and services.

Dell also talks about “Cloud Computing”, which right now Dell is contributing with, but there is some indication that Dell will be working on hardware that will get them more involved in this concept.

This is what he told OM Malik the other day:

We have identified five big opportunities. When I say big, I’m talking about $5 billion to $10 billion each in terms of scale opportunities. They are the consumer business, mobile computers, emerging countries, enterprise, and small/medium business. We have reorganized the company around these key priorities.

Engadget reported that Michael Dell started hinting on a Dell Smart Phone. This is a rumor that has surfaced since Smart Phones started gaining steam. I looked through this article, and the one on Business Week, but only found that Dell is “certainly looking at the whole smartphone category, but I wouldn’t expect anything anytime soon”. He did mention that he could not disclose any plans on if they would work with Google Android or Symbian OS.

I sure wish I knew what was going on at Dell. I’ve been working at the same J.O.B. for about eight years, and we are a Dell campus. Everything we buy is Dell, except for the small amount of Gateways I convinced a few divisions to buy several years back (most notably the Gateway Convertible M275 Notebook). So I deal with Dell sales reps quite a bit. We normally have a sales rep assigned to us that we call on for quotes and questions.

In eight years, we’ve had no less than 15 Dell reps. Some last a month or two, a few have lasted a year. But it seems like every time I turn around, our current Dell rep has left for “other opportunities” and we have a new rep.

It hasn’t caused any real difficulties, except for maybe the fact that my Outlook contacts list is full of Dell reps and I don’t know which one is the current one. The new reps seem to get acclimated well to our system of purchasing and quoting and it is a seamless transition.

What concerns me is this relatively high turnover. I’ve worked in places that had high turnover, and there was usually a management or corporate reason for it, and it was never a positive thing. I have to wonder what is going on over there at Dell, when a sales rep only lasts a few months and then leaves Dell altogether. Makes me wonder if we shouldn’t have a backup contract in the works with another hardware provider.

Just when is Dell going to learn? I actually thought that they were beginning to catch on when they created the dellone2one.com blog, but from the sound of this letter it doesn’t seem like it.

DellLied – I BelieveLied