It is the first time in the country that the company is offering its consumer brands to customers through retail partners nationwide. In so doing, it enables hundreds of thousands of in-store computer buyers to experience firsthand the beauty and power of Dell XPS and Inspiron brands, specifically.

Launched the few days ago are the Dell XPS M1330 and the Inspiron 1420 laptops, and the Inspiron 530 and 530s (slimbuild) desktops.

At a press preview with some members of the local technology and business press, Evan Williams, consumer sales and marketing general manager for South East Asia, Dell Inc., said the initiative is important to Dell because it is a "great way for us to connect with the Philippine consumers we may not have reached in the past."

He continued, "We have had strong success in the corporate segment and the time is right for us to allow the general populace to experience what Dell has to offer."

Williams, who prior to his appointment in the South East Asia region led teams serving Dell’s Online Customers across Asia Pacific, added, "We are going into the retail space directly. People want to look at items as personal items."

For his part, Toru Matsura, marketing director for ASEAN and emerging consumer group, Dell, Inc., commented, "Consumers are increasingly becoming sophisticated in how they buy and use technology, and we are confident we can deliver the special Dell experience together with our retail partners."

Across ASEAN, Dell products are now available in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The expansion plan will cover Vietnam in the coming months.

Leading the product portfolio of notebooks and desktops intended for individual consumers is the Inspiron notebooks that offer a choice of 3 widescreens – 14, 15.4 and 7 inches) and eight distinctive colors such as Jet Black matte finish, Alpine White gloss finish, and Ruby Red, Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Flamingo Pink, Expresso Brown and Sunshine Yellow with microsatin premium finish. The Inspiron 1420, 1520 and 1720 notebooks feature Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Consumers can also upgrade all systems with integrated 2.0 megapixel Webcams and select systems with Blu-ray disc drives. They also have a choice of hard drive sizes up to 250 Gigabytes.

All Inspiron notebooks feature MediaDirect with Instant Office technology, the fastest one-button instant access utility available, enabling users to look at videos and photos, listen to music or check their calendar in seconds.

Consumers may opt for the premium XPS M1330 ultramobile notebook that weighs just under 1.8 kg and features an ultra thin 23.1 millimeter profile. Standard features include a high definition 13.3-inch display, slot-load optical drive, full-sized keyboard, sophisticated touch sensitive media buttons and HDMI support.

Performance enthusiasts, the Dell executives said, will appreciate the optional WLED display, nVidia discrete graphics, integrated fingerprint reader and Webcam and dual digital microphones.

Lastly, there is the Inspiron desktop PC which make great media hubs, supporting up to 1 terabyte of hard drive space. The Inspiron 530 and 530s desktop feature Celeron to Intel Core 2 duo processors. The ports include eight or ten USB (slim-tower/mini-tower models), and it has a variety of muti-media options including 13-1media card reader, IEEE1394.