Dell Ditches Kiosks

Looks like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are working out: Dell, the world?s second-largest computer maker, is closing its U.S. shopping mall and airport kiosks while embracing a global retail strategy that has placed its hardware in thousands of stores around the world.All 140 kiosks will be shuttered in a matter of days, according Bob Kaufman, a spokesman for Dell, which launched the kiosk effort in 2002 as a way for customers to see products before ordering online or by phone.

"In the past six months the company has adopted a retail strategy that enables Dell to connect with customers it has not necessarily reached in the past," the company said in a statement.

Dell shipped close to 39,000 PCs last year -- accounting for 14.3 percent of the worldwide market, according to Gartner. The only other vendor with double-digit market share was Hewlett-Packard, topping Gartner's list with more than 49,000 PCs shipped worldwide to 18.2 percent of the market.NPR, Cnet News.com