Global technology giant Dell's acumen for selling low-priced personal computers has earned it a place in Washington's Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the company and museum announced on May 10.
Michael Dell, who founded the world's number two computer seller 22 years ago with a paltry 1,000 dollars in his pocket, donated to the premier US history museum a collection of computer-related materials that "provide insight into Dell's career as entrepreneur and business leader and Dell Inc, as a global company," according to a statement.
The items include a PC's Limited computer from 1985 - when Dell began assembling his own computers under that name - and a top-notch 2005 Dell OptiPlex GX520 produced at the Dell plant in North Carolina.
"Dell Inc is an outstanding example of a modern American company succeeding in a global marketplace," said museum director Brent Glass. David Allison, who oversees the museum's information technology section - which already holds iconic times like an Altair computer, one of the first personal computers from the 1970s - upon which Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote their first commercial program - and first-generation IBM and Apple PCs.
To obtain the long-obsolete PC's Limited machine, Dell had to find a family in North Carolina that still had one - and trade it for a brand new Dell model, which is thousands of times more powerful. "We are proud that Dell is becoming part of the Smithsonian and part of our country's history," said Dell.