Possibly biased/influenced view since I do some marketing work for Dell, and in particular for their Alienware brand.

- I feel the biggest issues to address from the point of view of their products are:

- Either stop trying to branch out into novel ideas, or find a way to make them work. Failed attempts such as the Streak don't help them financially, or from a PR point of view. Edit: I guess an extension of this point is that their innovations are big enough that they can fail miserably, but not big enough to be that interesting. Take the Streak as an example, it was a big enough move from what consumers are used to that it flopped miserably, but at the end of the day it wasn't really a new idea, just a new execution - half tablet, half phone, which made it both shitty as a tablet (who wants a tiny screen) and annoying as a phone (hey, look at this huge slab I'm holding to my ear, I carry it in a purse because I don't have giant-sized pockets). If they are going to innovate, find something actually exciting.

- Not enough promotion, from personal experience I see less Dell adverts than I did 5 years ago

- Better customer support. Invest to become the best in the industry in this area, and customer loyalty / word of mouth praise will pay dividends

- Be exciting. The only time I'm aware of Dell products in news is for their new swing-and-a-miss lines, such as the Streak. Release a really expensive, really beautiful laptop once a year (think Sony Z series). Release an unbelievably cheap budget machine that makes headlines. These products don't even need to sell in huge numbers, they just need to get press. If you read an article about how great a company's £3,000 laptop is, there's a good chance you don't want to spend that much, but it makes you think "if this is so awesome, and the press say it is, they probably have a cheaper product that has the same awesomeness-per-dollar-that-it-costs that would suit me". And really, a lot of their products WILL be as good for their price, but they just aren't exciting for journalists to write about.

- Become the number one choice for business users. Fill the slot that was created when IBM sold thinkpad to Levano. Sure, thinkpads are still good, but it's not quite the same. I think there is a very real opportunity for one of the big players to launch a range of business laptops that can become the new thinkpad, the brand that office workers on low salaries use, all the way up to executives who have upgraded to a better spec machine. They used to get by on being the boring choice for businesses, but that doesn't work so well now that they have such big competition. Find a new way to become the defacto business choice. You don't have to be cool by offering sexy designs, or multiple colour options, in the business world you can be cool by letting people show that they mean business. Thinkpads were/are a sign of job status, which made their plain design loved for its own reasons.

Anyway, that's just a few thoughts of the top of my head. Should probably point out that the involvement I have had in marketing Dell products is purely about brand exposure/interest, and purely on a "here's an advertising company that we can spend a bit of money with" basis - nothing to do with company/product strategy or anything like that.