Josh Claman, vice president and general manager of Dell UK said: The percentage of revenue that we make from the channel has not changed and we have no intention of changing it.

While Dell has always been famed for its direct sales model, it does sell a small amount of hardware via the channel, for example to outsourcers who then install the equipment for their customers, or to ISVs in specific verticals such as healthcare who wish to offer customers tailored systems including hardware and software.

It’s true there are a small amount of sales via the channel in those smaller situations, said Claman, but beyond that it is our usual direct model. We have no intention of changing that.

The rumor is perhaps a case of Chinese whispers as it is true that Dell recently took tentative steps into retail, opening two retail stores in shopping malls in Dallas and West Nyack, New York. It already had over 160 product kiosks at malls and airports in the US.

However, these stores and kiosks do not stock inventory, and instead offer technical advice and directing customers to Dell’s web site if customers decide to make a purchase. These are for customers that want to talk to someone before they buy online, said Claman. They have no inventory and so are not a channel model.

Claman said there is an ongoing discussion as to whether Dell might open a retail store in the UK, also without inventory, but was adamant that the company has made no decisions about such a move.

With its two retail stores in the US, Dell has presumably been hoping to replicate some of the success that Apple has been seeing with its retail presences since it opened its first retail stores five years ago.

Apple now has about 150 stores worldwide and is said to be adding new stores at the rate of 40 a year. Revenue for each square foot at Apple stores last year was $2,489, compared with $971 at rival Best Buy, according to Forrester Research. In May this year Apple opened a showcase store in Manhattan that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Others have been less successful, Gateway had to give up on a number of its Gateway Country Stores, for example.

Back in 2003 Dell dabbled with retail concessions within Sears department stores around Austin, Texas, but it described these as an experiment and closed them down not long after.