Upbeat Dell sees future growth beyond job cuts.

ESPITE facing one of the toughest climates in the two decades of the PC industry that he helped to shape, Michael Dell's enthusiasm is undented.

This is perhaps not without good reason. Figures from Dataquest in April showed that the Austin, Texas company, where Dell is the chief executive, had ousted Compaq from its seven-year reign as the world's biggest PC maker. He grew its first-quarter sales by 34% to take a market share of 12.8%, ahead of Compaq's 12.1% for the three months.

The figures show that the worldwide personal computer market grew only 3.5%