"There is definitely a phenomenon of the Internet in your pocket, there are platforms emerging from many companies we think are pretty interesting and [we will] have an opportunity to compete in open systems," said Dell. "You'll see us show up there gradually," he added.

Michael Dell expressed cautious optimism about an upturn in computer demand.

Earlier this year, Dell announced it is designing a smartphone for China Mobile based on a derivative of the Google Android operating system. "That's where we are starting" in this area, Dell said.

The company has also released a notebook that uses an optional ARM/Linux subsystem to handle some tasks at lower power and quicker response levels than its main X86/Windows electronics.

Looking ahead at the consumer systems that represent about 19 percent of the company's sales, "I think you'll see many different form factors," Dell said. "There won't be one answer there--you will have all sort of sizes and shapes of devices," he added.

Dell is already seeing an upturn in sales of servers and hopes to see that spread to client PCs next year.

"I think there's a powerful refresh cycle coming," Dell said. "It won't come all at once, but we believe it's going to happen as we get into the early part of next year on the client side--on server side it's already started," he said.

Dell expressed optimism the combination of the new Intel Nehalem processors and Windows software will drive growth in PCs.

"The average client device in business is running Windows XP, but that's an eight-year old operating system," Dell said. "If you get the latest processor technology and Windows 7 and Office 2010, you will love your PC again, and we have not been able to say that for a long time--it's a dramatic improvement in performance and capability," he added.