Dell says it no longer sees its business as one that manufacturers and sells PCs but rather as an IT solutions company focusing more on the enterprise market. The claim follows the firm’s publishing of its full-year financials, which showed a growth in the enterprise market but struggling computer sales in the consumer sales division.

While launching the company's new enterprise hardware solutions at an event in London, England yesterday, Dell’s president of the enterprise solutions group Brad Anderson announced, "we're no longer a PC company, we're an IT company." He continued, "Dell's changing very quickly. We are dramatically changing the make-up of our business […] It's no longer about shiny boxes, it's about IT solutions [that let companies drive efficiencies]."

The published financials revealed that 30 percent of all of Dell’s sales come from enterprise solutions, with it providing 50 percent of the company’s profits. On the other hand, consumer sales were down 2 percent, according to PC Pro.

Anderson's comments are reminiscent of moves by IBM, which sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005, and HP, which came close to selling off its personal systems division last summer. Dell won’t be getting out of the PC business completely, however, at least not yet.

Dell believes its earnings results validate the success of their business-focused strategy. "We think our strategy is the right one," Anderson stated, adding that Dell will be making more acquisitions in the near future to further extend the reach of its enterprise IT solutions, on top of recent purchases of Force 10 Networks and Compellent Technologies to boost its products and services.

It will move away from less profitable areas of the business, which include printers and other peripherals, while maintaining a strong focus on products such as the XPS line of computers, notebooks and ultrabooks in addition to the enterprise market.

Last month Dell announced it would release a new consumer tablet later this year, after quietly discontinuing their Streak 7 tablet from the US market in December. It is currently unclear if the company is continuing these efforts amid the announcement of the change in its business focus.