Dell Technologies saw strong third quarter growth from its commercial and consumer PC units as well as solid demand for its data center gear.

The company delivered the best third quarter in its history with revenue of$28.4 billion, up 21% from a year ago, with earnings of$3.9 billion, or$4.87 a share. Non-GAAP earnings were$2.37 a share.

Analysts were expecting Dell to report third quarter revenue of$26.82 billion with non-GAAP earnings of$2.18 a share.

Dell's client solutions group revenue was$16.5 billion in the third quarter, up 35% from a year ago. Operating income for the third quarter was$1.1 billion. Commercial revenue was$12.3 billion, up 40% from a year ago. Consumer revenue was$4.3 billion, up 21%.

The company said it saw strong PC demand for commercial systems, high-end consumer units and gaming. HP also delivered strong quarterly results. 

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On a conference call with analysts, Jeffrey Clarke, vice chairman of Dell Technologies, said:

In client, we are pairing Windows 11 with our Dell Optimizer built-in intelligence to deliver the most personalized productive computing experience on the world's most intelligent business PCs. We believe the introduction of Windows 11 will continue to drive demand in PCs.

On the infrastructure side, Dell delivered third quarter revenue of$8.4 billion, up 5% from a year ago. Storage revenue was up 1% with server and networking sales of$4.5 billion, up 9% from a year ago.

Chuck Whitten, co-COO for Dell Technologies, said:

Demand for our solutions remains strong as global economic recovery and widespread digital transformation reset IT demand to higher levels. Against that backdrop and despite the difficult supply environment, we again delivered great performance in Q3, with strong growth in all 3 business units, all regions and broad strength across our commercial PC, server and notably, most of our storage portfolio. We gained share in servers, storage and PCs, according to the latest reported IDC results. As we look forward, all signposts point to continued strong market demand, and we intend to continue winning in the consolidation and gaining share over the long term. Our strategy is not just to win in the consolidation but also to modernize our business, and our APEX-branded solutions are important to that future. Though it is still early days, we're pleased with our technical progress and the momentum across our family of as-a-service offerings, which will continue to expand going forward.

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