Dell is in the right business for 2020, Sam Burd, president of the company's PC hardware and software business, told Cheddar.
"One thing that we've seen in 2020 is technology has become really important to how people get things done," he said. "Getting that technology in the hands of our customers has been really important to keeping the world operating."
The computer giant pulled $23.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter, beating analyst's expectations of $21.9 billion, largely through increased demand for laptops and PCs.
Burd explained that we've quickly gone from a world where maybe one PC was sufficient for a single household to one where multiple are needed, as students and employees alike work remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This trend also applied to the public sector, which increased its spend on technology to offer remote education options.
On the back-end, Burd added, this has increased the need for cybersecurity.
"The world we're in today, we have a very distributed set of how people are doing work, so that attack surface has gotten a lot bigger for companies or for even people in their household," he said.
He noted that a Dell study found that 44 percent of businesses have had a hardware-based breach in the past year, and that the number is likely much higher.
Dell's success in 2020 also shows that earlier predictions that the PC was dead — in light of competition from products like tablets and smartphones — missed the mark, Burd noted.
"We're kind of hitting the 10-year anniversary where some of the press started to say that the PC was dead," he said. "Since that point in time, as an industry we have shipped over two billion systems. Customers had had demand for $3 trillion of PCs. So the death of the PC was highly overhyped."
U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
Kia McCallister-Young, director of America Saves, joined Cheddar News to explain key differences to consider when making a choice between a credit union and a bank. "You want to do your research and know exactly how to gain membership to a credit union," she said, "but, again, banks often are able to be more accessible and be in neighborhoods."
Cheddar News breaks down what to look for on The Day Ahead. The House will hold a hearing on the federal response to the recent banking issues while Starbucks CEO will testify on Capitol Hill about union-busting claims. Disney Parks workers are set to vote on a new contract proposal.
A new indictment charges FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business.
Producing your own food doesn't mean you have to own your own farm, and it might be as simple as raising some backyard chickens. Agri-tech startup Coop aims to make this easier for non-farmers with a so-called "smart" chicken coop. Cheddar News Senior Reporter Michelle Castillo found a flock to learn more.
Capitol hill is trying to get to the bottom of the bank collapses that shocked the financial system last month, and today lawmakers grilled banking regulators about why they weren't able to stop the crisis. Cheddar News correspondent Lisa Bennatan broke down the proceedings.
