The concept of a post-PC era is "complete nonsense," says Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) CEO Michael Dell. Speaking to the Financial Times, Dell pointed to Gartner's estimate of two billion PCs in the world by 2014, compared to just a billion and a half today, as the basis for his comment.

Dell also noted that devices such as tablets and smartphones "aren't necessarily replacing the PCs." Perhaps offering a hint to what is to come, Dell added that the company is "very much in line" with Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) plan to optimize its upcoming Windows 8 for tablets. "The line that separates a tablet and a laptop today will get very blurry and ultimately disappear as you see many new products," he says.

With a market share of almost 13 percent, Dell is the world's second-largest PC vendor. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has a larger market share, though the company recently announced its intention to ditch its commodity computer business to focus on software and services.

And while Dell says he is not interested in buying HP's PC business, the transition inherent in any acquisition or spin-off of HP's PC business would certainly allow Dell to improve on its market share. Dell's optimism on the hardware front isn't blind faith either. He puts it this way: "We do believe the value will shift to software services but even as it evolves hardware won't go away."

For more:
- check out this article at Financial Times
- check out this article at ZDNet
- check out this article at eWeek

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