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Dell, who retook the helm of the company that bears his name in 2007, says the PC maker can overtake HP and regain the lead it lost in 2006.

"We're growing faster than our industry," Dell told the BBC. "So if you keep on doing that for a long enough time, you'll certainly get there."

Dell claims the company's decision to drop its direct-only mantra is bearing fruit. The company now sells its PCs and laptops through a variety of retail outlets, including

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PC World and Tesco. "Let's say you wanted to buy a Dell computer in a store nine months ago - you'd have searched a long time and not found one. Now we have over 10,000 stores that sell our products," Dell boasts.

"We were not really participating in some of the fastest growing areas of the industry, so we've reoriented the company to go after that."

Dell was also keen to emphasise the company's new focus on product design, dismissing suggestions that the company is best known for boring beige boxes. "As we've gone to the consumer we've been paying quite a bit more attention to design, fashion, colours, textures and materials," he says. "We actually make them in any colour - whatever colour you like."

However, Dell did make one minor faux pas when challenged on what non-Dell technology he uses, admitting that he has a BlackBerry for business - which is unlikely to go down to well with Palm, which sells its products via the Dell website.